Star Fox: A New Beginning
by ThePrisoner
Summary: Fox is tired of his life and filled with self hatred for what he did to Krystal. He can no longer live with himself so he decides to do something drastic.
1. Prolog

Okay, this is my first fan fiction so cut me some slack. I should also let you know that I plan on making this story pretty long but I'm not sure how long it will take to finish it so bear with me.

Star Fox: A New Beginning

Prolog

It had been one year since the legendary Star Fox team defeated the forces of the Angler Empire. Venom, the once inhabitable world of death and destruction, was now being made habitable by some of Corneria's top scientists to ensure that no more threats would rise from the seemingly evil planet. The project to purify Venom of its acidic oceans and lethal atmosphere, known as project "Anti-Venom", was making great progress thanks to the efforts of Beltino Toad. He helped develop a large assortment of rapidly growing plants to be placed all over the planet to help clean the air, and soon massive lush green forests covered the once bare and dead planet. Shortly after the atmosphere was made breathable, groups of colonists started to settle on the planet to form cities, eager to take advantage of its rich and unknown resources. Although the atmosphere was now breathable, the oceans were still acidic, though not as nearly as acidic as they were before. Before project Anti-Venom was started, the oceans would have instantly dissolved anyone unlucky enough to fall into them, but now it would take at least a half hour in the ocean water to completely dissolve someone, and although they were still dangerous, the oceans of Venom were now much less lethal.

The citizens of a small city located on the coastline of Venom looked up to see the Arwing piloted by the one and only Fox McCloud screech by overhead towards the ocean.

'Wow', the russet red vulpine mumbled to himself as he flew through the skies of Venom amazed at how beautiful it now looked. If he didn't know better he would have thought he was on Corneria, that and the fact that the oceans of this planet were green and not blue. He flew low and looked down at the beautiful lush forests and was baffled by how fast they .had grown

His Arwing was now flying over the oceans, following the coastline that seemed to divide the world apart. 'This seems like the right spot', Fox thought to himself as he slowed his Arwing until it was now hovering around a hundred feet or so over the deep green ocean. He then opened the canopy and crawled out the cockpit of the hovering vehicle and sat down on its nose with his hands behind his head.

For a while he just laid there; eyes open and staring at the forests he could see from his altitude. He eventually found himself thinking about the past. It had been one year, one whole year since the Anglers attacked. One year since he made the biggest mistake of his life. One year since he forced Krystal off the team. At the time, he thought he was protecting her, he didn't realize how much he was hurting her when he did, but he just couldn't risk losing her. He loved her more than anything, but never had the courage to tell her and was devastated to hear that she joined Star Wolf. Now, he wanted her back more than ever. At one point he thought that he had her back when she left Star Wolf to help him defeat the Anglers. When she was back on the team he wanted nothing more than for things to go back to normal. He wanted nothing more than to fully apologize for hurting her and tell her how he felt, but whenever she was around him on the Great Fox, she always gave him a cold glare. He knew that she would never truly forgive him. He tried many times to tell her, but every time she looked at him, fear seized his throat and stopped him from telling her. He thought that eventually, time would pass and he would be able to tell her. That was, until that unfaithful nightmare of a day.

"I'm sorry, Fox! I can't do this anymore. I'm going back to be with Panther and the rest of Star Wolf." Her words rang through his mind over and over again, each time he thought about it he died a little on the inside. A tear rolled down his cheek as he lay on his hovering Arwing.

After she left, he tried many times to contact her and apologized over and over again and begged her to come back to the team, only to have her reply, "I'm sorry Fox, but you had your chance. I'm happy here with Stat Wolf; I have moved on and you should too." But he couldn't. He hated himself for kicking her off the team, and he hated himself for hurting her and taking away the only home she knew. Ever since she left he felt like a shell of the fox he once was, all he did was eat, sleep, and train, as if he were a mindless drone. He no longer felt like the leader he once was and nothing ever happened to take is mind off his thoughts since he and his team defeated the Anglers. Even though they made more than enough money to last themselves a life time from defeating the Anglers, he still wished there was something he could to take his mind off things. Unfortunately for him, the galaxy was now at peace.

All he felt now was pain, guilt, grief, and tired. He felt so tired, tired of it all, tired of not being able to walk the streets without a mob of fans chasing him, tired of not being able to do anything useful, tired of being alone, but most of all he was tired of hurting the ones he loved.


	2. Chapter 1: The Fall of McCloud

Chapter 1: The Fall of McCloud

Fox lay on the hovering Arwing for hours, trying to enjoy the beauty of a newly terraformed Venom and hopefully get some sleep to pass the time. Just as he started to doze off, his ears twitched as he heard the sound of familiar vehicles approaching his position. He didn't move though, he just laid there with his hands behind his head and his eyes open staring up at the open sky. He still didn't move to look around even though he could tell the vehicles getting closer and closer to his position until it seemed as they were right next to him. Suddenly, one of the vehicles around him fired its weapon, hitting the wing his Arwing and leaving small gashes behind in the place the blast had struck. Fox just laid there for a minute, completely un-phased by the shots that flew just past his head. Finally he reached into his cockpit and pulled out his communicator.

"What do you want Wolf." Fox sighed into his communicator.

"Aww, what's a mater McCloud, did I wake you." the leader of Star Wolf chuckled into his coms device.

"Just leave me alone Wolf, I don't want to deal with this today." Fox said, still lying down on the nose of his Arwing.

"You hear that guys, Fox doesn't want to deal with us today, how sad." Wolf snickered. "Come on McCloud, fight me. Let's see who the better pilot is once and for all. I know you have nothing better to do."

Fox just sat there for a minute and sighed, "Wolf, in case you don't remember; I defeated you, Panther, and Leon, all at the same time. What makes you so sure you can beat me all by yourself?"

This instantly pissed Wolf off. "Tough talk for someone lying outside his ship! You're lucky I don't blast you to smithereens for insulting me like that!"

"Go ahead and do it, I don't care." Fox snapped back, and stood up on his Arwing to stair Wolf straight in the eye.

"You think I'm joking! Don't' tempt me McCloud; I will light your ass up in a heartbeat!" Wolf snarled, staring straight back at Fox through his canopy.

"No Wolf, I don't think you're joking, I really just don't give a damn anymore, so go ahead and shoot." Fox replied in a serious tone, surprising Wolf and his team.

"Ha-ha, come on Wolf, let me blow him up." Leon chuckled over the coms channel, egger to shoot down the vulpine that seemed to beg for his own death.

Wolf ignored Leon and the rest of Star Wolf just stared at Fox in silence, wondering what he meant.

"Fox... what's gotten into you." Krystal said, finally commenting on the vulpine's startling statement and breaking the silence, "What do you mean you don't care... Fox, what are you talking about?"

Fox just stood there motionless on his Arwing, his heart melted at the sweet sound of her voice before finally speaking. "I'm tired Krystal... I'm just so tired of not being able to do anything, tired of never being left alone, tired of not ever being able to have a normal life, but most of all, I'm tired of hurting you."

"... Fox." was all she could say before his emerald eyes made contact with her turquoise green ones. She couldn't look away from his soul piercing gaze and noticed a damp trail leading from the corner of his eye down across his cheek. His eyes seemed to scream in pain and agony, begging for a means to an end.

"Krystal." Wolf said through a private com channel, causing her to jump a little and break eye contact with Fox. "Can you tell what he is thinking, is he actually serious?"

"Oh yeah... right, just give me a sec." She said as she tried to focus on Fox's thoughts, but there was something wrong; she couldn't read his thoughts. It was as if he didn't have any thoughts at all and she couldn't feel any emotions from him either. "Wolf I… I can't sense his thoughts; something's not right"

"What, that can't be true. He's clearly thinking something... I hope he's not going to do what I think he's going to do. Try it again!" Wolf demanded in a hasty tone

Krystal tried to focus on Fox's thoughts once more, but to her disappointment she couldn't get anything from him. She then began to wonder what Wolf meant so she peeked into his mind. Her body instantly tensed up and a chill ran down her spine. "You... you think he's going to kill himself?" She said, trembling at the thought of Fox committing suicide.

"Hey, who gave you permission to read my mind?" Wolf yelled through is com "... but yeah, that's what I'm thinking."

"No... He wouldn't… that's just not him; he would never do that!" She said, practically screaming at Wolf. "Fox would never kill himself!"

"I hope he does, I think it would be funny." Leon chuckled.

"Shut up Leon." Wolf yelled. "If you don't believe me then take a look at him. Something's obviously wrong with him."

She wanted to look and see Fox's face but was too afraid that she would be met with his cold, pain filled eyes. "I... I can't." was all she could say.

"There, there, no need to get upset, Panther is here for you." Panther purred, trying to calm the distressed vixen down.

Wolf was about to yell at Panther and tell him the now was not the time but was interrupted before he could. "Krystal... are you there?" Fox said through his com; he was just standing there and watching them talk through their canopies but not hearing anything through his communications device.

After hearing her name, Krystal looked up to see Fox still standing on his Arwing hovering high over the acidic ocean. She was somewhat glad that he was now staring at his own feet and not at her. "Uh... yeah, what is it Fox, you can tell me." She said, trying to calm him down.

"Krystal... I'm sorry." Fox said still staring at his feet in shame. "I'm sorry for hurting you, sorry for letting fear get the better of me and taking everything away from you. I'm sorry that I never got the chance to tell you how I feel."

"... Fox... I'm sorry but I already told you." was all she could say before Fox cut her off.

"I know Krystal, I know... I know you're happy with Star Wolf… and with... P-Panther." He said struggling to say the feline's name. As he finished saying the his name, a sharp pain surged through his chest and it felt as if he had been shot. He dropped to a knee in pain and felt his chest, but there was nothing there, no blood, no wound, nothing. He got back to his feet and continued to talk. "I just want you to know that I will never hurt you again. I only want you to be happy."

"Fox..." was all she could muster before Fox looked up, his gaze striking her in the eyes. Once again she was paralyzed by his eyes, but this time they looked worse. Not only were his eyes filled with pain and agony, but they also looked cold and dead, as if they had died long ago and the rest of him was now catching up.

"Krystal... "Fox said as a tear rolled down his cheek as a soft smile spread across his face. "I will always love you." With that said he closed his eyes and spread his arms out like an angel. He leaned back slowly, letting his feet leave the surface of the ship and falling down towards the green acidic water below.

The members of Star Wolf watched in surprise at the vulpine's actions, each reacting differently to Fox's unexpected actions. Wolf slammed his fists down and his control panel and cursed, realizing that he would never get a chance to finally defeat the only other pilot he deemed worthy to be his rival. Leon just laughed hysterically at the sight of the helpless vulpine tumbling through the air to his certain death. Panther didn't really care about the falling vulpine, he was just glad that Fox was out of the way so that he might now finally have the chance to sleep with a certain blue furred vixen; comfort sex was his specialty. Krystal only watched in horror as Fox fell through the air towards his demise. She turned away just as he was about to hit the acidic water, unable to watch the impact.

As soon as the other members of Star Wolf saw his tumbling body make contact with the ocean below, a massive amount of green acidic water erupted all around his body, sending water nearly thirty feet into the air. The four Wolfens just hovered in the air as their pilots tried to take in what they just saw.

"Wow, did you see that." Leon laughed through his com "Who would've thought that little guy could make such a huge splash."

"Shut up Leon; just give it a rest will ya." Wolf said angrily. "Come on let's go, shows over."

"Wait!" Krystal yelled, "We have to go down there, we have to find him, he might still be ali-

"Krystal!" Wolf shouted. "He's gone... no one could have survived that fall, and his body has probably already dissolved into the ocean. There is nothing we can do. He's dead, you need to move on."

"But..." Krystal said trying to hold back tears. "What should we do? Shouldn't we tell someone?"

"What, are you **crazy**? Hell no!" Wolf replied "Do you honestly think people are going to believe that we saw _**Fox McCloud **_commit suicide and that we were the only ones to witness it. We were his rivals, they would think we killed him and I don't know about you, but I like not having a bounty on my head. So no one says a thing, got it!"

Both Panther and Leon said yes in unison but Krystal didn't respond, her eyes desperately scanned the ocean below for a hint of Fox's body.

"No one says a word about this, **right Krystal**!" Wolf shouted at her as he waited for a response.

"... Right." She mumbled, coming back to reality. She was about to ask what to do about Fox's Arwing, but she realized it was gone. He must have activated the autopilot before he jumped she thought. _But why?_

"Alright, now let's get out of here." Wolf commanded, and headed back towards his base with the others following close behind.

xxxx

Alright this was the first real chapter of my story and I'm really new to this stuff so sorry if it's not the greatest. I also hope it wasn't too depressing. Please read and review.


	3. Chapter 2: From Lies to Truth

Chapter 2: From Lies to Truth

Krystal immediately ran to her room as soon as she got back to the Star Wolf base at the Sargasso Space Station. Once she got to her room she closed the door and locked it. She wanted to be left alone and didn't want the others to see her as she started to cry in misery. She didn't understand why she was taking it so hard; she wasn't supposed to care about Fox anymore. She thought that she had moved on and that Fox was no longer a part of her life. She wanted to stop crying but the tears kept coming and never seemed to end. The memory of Fox falling of his Arwing replayed over and over again in her head; it was a nightmare she couldn't escape. It was only when a sudden realization crossed her mind had she finally understood why she was taking it so hard, she was lying to herself. Her whole life with Star Wolf was a lie. Her happiness was a lie, her feelings towards Panther were all lies, the fact that she moved on after Fox kicked her of his team was a lie, as well as the fact that she thought she no longer loved Fox. Her life of denial and fabrications was now crumbling around her and she was helpless to stop it.

Tears suddenly seemed to flood her face after she realized that it was because of her and her lies and that he was dead. Fox thought that she was happy and had moved on, but he couldn't. He ended his life so that he would no longer hurt her. It was something out of a sick nightmare. She cried, regretting all those hurtful lies she told Fox, but most of all she regretted not accepting his apology. She was afraid of getting hurt again, but now she wished she had, maybe then he would still be alive, she thought.

"No, not maybe... if I would have forgiven him he would definitely still be alive!" She screamed at herself. "I... I killed him. It's my fault, it's my fault, it's all my fault!" She screamed over and over again, tears still streaming down her muzzle as she wept into her pillow until she finally fell asleep from the emotional exhaustion.

xxxx

It had been two weeks since she saw Fox fall to his death. She hardly left her room other than to eat, which she barely did anymore. Now she just sat in her room and cried every so often, blaming herself for Fox's death. The others left her alone to grieve in privacy, all except for Panther that is. He kept trying to get her to come out of her room to comfort her, but she wanted none of it. She didn't want him or any part of the Star Wolf team any longer. So she just sat in her room and flipped through the channels of her TV before something on the news caught her attention. It was General Peppy and he had a grave look on his face as he began to speak. She turned up the volume to hear what he was saying.

"It has been two weeks since the legendary hero of Lylat, Fox McCloud, has made any contact with Corneria or his team," The old hare said with a sad look on his face. "And although he could still be alive and missing, it is with great pain that I must declare Fox McCloud, captain of the mercenary team Star Fox, officially deceased." The crowd around him immediately began to mumble to themselves while the reporters in started screaming questions at him.

It didn't happen much but it wasn't unheard of for pilots to go missing for two week and come back alive. In fact, the same thing actually happened to the entire Star Fox team after they went missing on one of their earlier missions. At that time though, Fox still hadn't met Krystal and didn't even know she existed. But Krystal new that Fox wouldn't be coming back this time, and after that thought she began to weep again.

"There will be a memorial service on the eleventh of June to honor Fox McCloud and his many services to Corneria." The General continued, ignoring the reporters and their barrage of questions. He began to talk about the many feats that Fox and his team accomplished in their years of service, but Krystal had heard enough and turned the TV off and began to sob again when she heard a knock on her door.

"Come now Krystal," Panther purred "Let Panther help you. You need to eat something. You don't want to lose your figure do you?"

That last comment immediately triggered a rage inside her and she began to scream, "MY FIGURE! Is that all you care about, my figure! Fox is dead and that's all you can think about! I heard what you were thinking when Fox died. Is that all you want from me! My body!" She was now furious at the feline and ran to the door and opened it to yell at his face.

"Krystal no, that's not what I meant. Honestly, Panther has no idea what you are talking about." he said trying to remain calm and cool.

"Don't give me that crap you womanizing bastard, I can read your mind!" She yelled, standing face to face with Panther "I also know about the other women you cheated on me with you unbearable selfish asshole!" Krystal yelled and then kicked him square in the groin. As he hunched over from the pain of the kick she slammed the door on his head, putting a dent in the door. She heard him hit the floor on the other side of the door and for the first time in weeks, she smiled.

xxxx

A few days after the incident with Panther, Krystal still sat in her room, but instead of crying she just watched TV wishing that this was all some sort of sick nightmare and that she would wake up any minute and Fox would still be alive. She would go back to him to hold him in her arms and tell him how sorry she was for hurting him. This however, wasn't the case, and so she just stayed in her room trying to isolate herself from the world. Suddenly her communicator began to go off, which was weird because not many people knew her number and anyone who did, hadn't contacted her in a long time.

She picked up the communicator and answered it. The holographic face of an older looking male raccoon she had never met before appeared in front of her.

"Are you Miss Krystal?" the older raccoon asked and Krystal only nodded in response "Ah, allow me to introduce myself. I am Mr. Quenc. I am, or should I say _**was**_, Fox McCloud's attorney."

"His... his attorney?" She said, with confusion in her voice. "What do you want from me?"

The raccoon the adjusted his glasses and began to speak. "Well seeing as Mr. McCloud is now officially deceased, I am required by law to explain to his friends and family what the departed left them in his will."

"His will? He had a will?" Krystal asked, now completely confused.'Why did Fox have a will? He was only twenty six.' She thought.

"Yes, he did, and according to his will he seems to have left you a Cloud Runner class Arwing. You will be able to locate said Arwing in the hanger of the Great Fox. If you have any problems obtaining what is rightfully yours, feel free to contact me and I will get the authorities to help. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a busy schedule and must be going, good bye." and with that the raccoon hung up and was gone.

Krystal sat on her bed still confused about what she had just heard. "He left me my old ship?" she said to herself.

Krystal couldn't believe that after all this time; Fox had kept her old ship. She was sure that after she left for the second time that he would have surely gotten rid of it, or at least sold it. He didn't though; he kept if for her, probably hoping that she would eventually come back. Her ears flattened as the though crossed her mind, and she was on the verge of crying again before she remembered what Fox said to her "_I only want you to be happy._" It was his last wish that she be happy and after realizing that she had been sad ever since his death she decided she would respect his final wishes and try to be happy.

She sat on her bed and thought about the last couple of weeks and how she had been acting. "This isn't what Fox would want." she said to herself. "He wants me to be happy." With that thought in mind she stood up and began packing her things. The only way she could ever have a chance of being happy again was to get as far away from Star Wolf as she possibly could, this she knew was a fact.

xxxx

Nothin much to say here so please read and review. Hope you like it so far.


	4. Chapter 3: A Fresh Start

Chapter 3: A Fresh Start

It was the dead of night as Krystal slowly crept out of her room with bags in hand, heading towards the hanger to her Wolfen. She walked down the long hallway that led straight to the hanger but was suddenly stopped.

"Where do you think you're going?" a voice echoed behind her.

Krystal turned to say something but when she did a paw quickly reached out and grabbed her by the throat and lifted her into the air. "The correct answer is nowhere." the voice said before pulling her towards his face so she could get a look at him.

"Panther!" she said struggling to free herself from his grasp on her throat "Let me go!" Krystal yelled.

Panther just looked at her and chuckled, "Not until I make you pay for what you did to me... hmm what to do?" he chuckled, holding the vixen off the ground by her neck. "Oh I know," he continued. "How about I make you give me what you owe, let's have a little fun shall we. How about we start off with a kiss." he said as he brought her face close to his.

"BIG MISTAKE!" she yelled, bearing her fangs. She slammed her forehead into his face causing him to drop her and grab is face in pain. She quickly rolled to her feet and looked at Panther who now had an obvious broken muzzle. "Serves you right!" she growled.

"Arrg! You little bitch!" Panther screamed in pain. "Panther will make you pay!" he said and quickly started throwing punches at Krystal.

She just laughed mockingly at his attempts and skillfully dogged his sloppy attacks. Although he had a lot of brute strength, he had no idea how to properly fight. "I can't believe I left Fox for someone as pathetic as you." she said, instantly getting a roar in response from Panther.

"You bitch!" He yelled, throwing a punch strait at her face.

She quickly dogged it and gave him a swift upper cut to his jaw, then spun around delivered a powerful kick to his chest. As soon as her foot connected, Panther immediately hunched over and gasped for the air that was knocked out of him, only to have his face meet her knee. His head snapped back from the impact and he collapsed to the floor, out cold. "humph." she said and spat in his now deformed face. She walked over to get her bags and finally leave this hell hole she once thought of as home.

xxxx

The Great Fox II slowly drifted through space orbiting Corneria. After its Captain never returned from Venom, the crew of the ship knew what they had to do and flew it back to Corneria to explain that their captain was now missing.

"I still can't believe he's gone." Said a sad green toad sitting in a chair at the bridge of the ship. "I can't believe he actually did it."

"Yeah I know what you mean, but it's what he wanted, he's in a better place." Falco responded with his arms folded across his chest "I honestly can't believe he went through with it either."

"It sucks we'll never be able to see him again." Slippy commented. "But it could be worse; he could actually be dea-." He was suddenly cut off by the alerts and warning sirens going off in the Great Fox.

"Slippy, what is it!" Falco shouted at the toad even though he was right next to him.

"Ow, jeez Falco not so loud. The terminal says that there's an enemy craft approaching." Slippy responded and began typing away at the computer.

"Well what kind of ship is it?" Falco asked, now looking over Slippy's shoulder at the terminal. "Uhh Falco? It says it's a Wolfen... what do we do?"

"A Wolfen eh... I think I know who it is, open up a communications channel." Falco said now standing straight up with his arms crossed once again, knowing that this day would eventually come.

Soon the face of a depressed looking blue vixen appeared before them. "Krystal!" Slippy shouted. "Oh, uh... Krystal, hey what's up, what do you need." Slippy said trying act casual. He gave a quick worried glance at Falco, who just stood there and shrugged back in response.

"Hi Slippy." Krystal said with sad tone trying not to look him in the eyes. "Uh, Fox kind of left me my old ship in his will and... I was wondering if I could come get it."

"Hey, sure thing blue." Falco answered. "Just meet us in the hanger, we will be right down."

"Oh... uh, thanks, see you guys in a bit." Krystal said with confusion. She didn't understand how they could act so normal; they just lost their captain and best friend a few weeks ago. 'Or maybe,'she thought to herself. Maybe they were trying to fool her and ambush her once she got to the hanger; maybe they blamed her for Fox's death. After all, she blamed herself for his death, so these two certainly would. "If they do try and kill me... I deserve it." She sighed.

xxxx

"Alright Slip, once we meet her down there, make sure you act normal, don't say anything stupid." Falco said as they walked towards the hanger.

"Me? What about you. _Sure thing blue... just meet us in the hanger, we will be right down._" Slippy said in a preppy voice trying to mock Falco "We just lost our captain and best friend, we have to act sad."

"Alright it get it, let's just get down there and get this over with... oh and make sure your little box thing is on." Falco said as he pulled out a small black matchbox sized contraption from his pocket and looked at the small green light that indicated it was on.

Slippy just rolled his eyes. "Don't worry, I didn't forget." He said, pulling out a small matchbox device of his own to make sure the green light was on.

As soon as they got near the door to the hanger they slipped the small boxes back into their pockets and walked through the door to be greeted by Krystal and the sad expression she wore.

"Hey Falco, hey Slippy." Krystal said in a sad voice and just stood as if she was waiting for something to happen to her.

"Hey Krystal." They both said in a now equally depressed voice.

They all just stood there for a while not sure what else to say to each other.

"Here, let me show you to your ship." Falco said, breaking the awkward silence. He started walking across the hanger with the sad blue vixen following him.

"That's odd." She mumbled to herself. She tried to read Falco's mind to see if he was thinking about Fox, but he wasn't. In fact, there was no trace of Fox in either Falco's, or Slippy's mind. They just lost their captain and best friend and with Fox's memorial just days away, she was sure that they would be thinking of him, but to her surprise they weren't. It was as if he no longer existed in their minds, but she knew that couldn't be the case. Maybe all the stress of what was happening was clouding her focus and preventing her from properly reading their minds. 'Yeah that must be it,' she thought to herself.

"Ahh here we go." The avian said as he approached a ship covered by a large white tarp. Once he got close he grabbed the tarp and yanked it off the ship. "Tadaaa." Falco said as he revealed a beautiful and brand new looking ship.

"Oh my... is this really my old ship?" Krystal said as she inspected the ship that looked almost brand new. "The last time I used this, it was practically torn to shreds."

"Yeah I know, Fox made sure I fixed it up to perfection before... "Slippy paused, causing Krystal to give him puzzled look.

"Before what?" She asked.

Falco gave Slippy a quick nudge and Slippy quickly responded. "Oh, uh... before you came back to the team." The toad sputtered out and quickly covered his mouth after and stared wide eyed at Krystal in shock at what had just came out of his own mouth.

Her tail drooped towards the floor as her ears pinned down across her head. "Oh... I see."

"Nice goin." Falco muttered to Slippy. "Just let me do the talken from now on, okay?"

"Fine." Slippy said still startled by the fact that he almost gave himself away.

"So Krystal..." Falco said trying to change the subject. "What do plan on doing with it?"

"With what?" she asked, now looking back up at him.

"You know... the Cloud Runner," the falcon replied. "Are you going to sell it, donate it, what?"

"Oh... I was planning on keeping it." She answered.

"Really, but you already have a ship. I don't think Star Wolf would appreciate you to flying an Arwing on their team." Falco said as he crossed his arms once again.

"I am no longer a part of Star Wolf." She responded in a cold tone, "and for all I care they can all rot in hell."

Falco just looked at Slippy and was met by the same confused stair that he to wore on his own face. "Krystal, what happened, did they kick you out, did they hurt you?" Falco asked as he grew more concerned for the vixen.

"No, nothing like that, I just decided to leave them is all." She quickly replied trying to calm him down. "I also beat the crap out of that asshole Panther."

Falco just stared at her a bit before breaking out in laughter. "Well, it's a good thing you finally came to your senses." he said still chuckling before another thought crossed his mind. "So then what will you do now?" he asked.

"Oh, well after I attend Fox's memorial..." She paused and realized that she hadn't really thought about what she would do once she left Star Wolf but was still glad she did. "Gee, I... I guess I don't really know."

"Oh, sorry to hear that." Falco said now staring off into space wondering how he could help her. A sly grin spread across his face as an interesting thought entered his mind. "Hey Krystal, you ever think about maybe becoming a teacher?"

Slippy just stared at Falco wide eyed in shock of what his feathered friend just said.

"Uhh... a teacher?" Krystal asked, slightly cocking her head to the side and lowering an ear in confusion.

"Yeah, but not just any teacher, I'm talking about a flight instructor." He said with a sly grin still on his face. "Think about it, Fox personally taught you everything he knew about flying. He even showed you flight maneuvers that I never thought possible. It'd be a shame for Fox's teachings to never be continued."

"Uh, well… yeah it would. But Falco, I don't know the first thing about teaching." Krystal said with the same confused look on her face, but was slightly interested at what the avian said.

"Well actually, as long as you're an expert pilot, which you are, there is a class this summer at the Cornerian Academy to train experienced pilots on the basics of how to teach students to fly. You just have to sign up for it before all the positions fill up." Falco said with his arms still crossed as if it was their natural position. "Besides, Fox didn't know the first thing about teaching either, but that didn't stop him from training you, and look how good of a pilot you are now. I think you'd make a great teacher."

She knew Falco was right about Fox. She owed ever ounce of her skills as a pilot to Fox, and she rather liked the thought of her continuing Fox's teachings. She felt she owed it to Fox to pass on his skills, and believed it would make her happy do it and keep his memory alive.

"Hmm, I'll look into it, thanks Falco." She said as a small smile formed on her face. "But how do I sign up for the summer class?"

"Oh, just talk to Peppy; he's in charge of sighing people up for the class." Falco said now walking across the hanger towards Krystal's Wolfen.

"Peppy? Isn't he a general now? Why is he in charge of signing people up for this class?" She asked following Falco to her old ship.

"Well think about it." Falco replied. "He's in charge of Corneria's defenses, so doesn't it make sense that he makes sure that he has the right people teaching the future pilots of Corneria's Air Force.

"Yeah, I guess that makes sense. So how can I get a hold of him?" She asked.

"Well..." Falco said now rubbing the back of his head with his wing. "From what I hear he's pretty busy, so the only time you are going to have to talk with him is at Fox's memorial ceremony."

Slippy was still staring at Falco in disbelief. He couldn't believe what Falco was doing.

"WHAT! Falco, do you have any idea how disrespectful that would be, to use Fox's memorial to try and get a favor from him." Krystal said, now rubbing her temples as though a small headache was forming.

"Yeah I know, but I think it's your only shot. Besides, this is Peppy we are talking about, I'm sure he'll understand." Falco stated. "Plus I'll be there to back you up if you need it."

"uuugh..." She groaned. "I guess I have no choice. Fine I'll ask, but you better make sure your feathered butt is there to back me up."

"Don't worry I'll be there." He chuckled. "Alright, now that that's settled, I was wondering what you want to do with your Wolfen."

"Well I'm not going to be flying it, that's for sure; I guess you guys can have it if you want. Although it probably has a tracker on it, and I bet Star Wolf will come looking for me after what I did to Panther." She laughed a little as she remembered the look on his pathetic face after she beat him to a pulp. "He got what he deserved."

Falco couldn't help but laugh as he imagined Krystal kicking the crap out of Panther. "So we can have it huh? Would you mind if we blew it up?" Falco asked with a smirk on his face.

"Only if I can watch." She laughed. It felt good to laugh again, even when Fox was alive and she was on Star Wolf she hardly laughed at all. She missed it, she missed all the good times she had with Star Fox, but most of all she missed Fox. She remembered all the times Fox would make her laugh because of how shy and embarrassed he would get whenever she mess his head. Tears almost started to form in her eyes after remembering him but she held it in, determined to be strong for Fox's sake.

"Awesome!" Falco yelled in delight. "Slippy, activate the Wolfen's autopilot and send it about a hundred yards in front of the Great Fox." he said shaking Slippy from his still wide eyed stair at him.

"Oh... uh just a sec... you guys can head towards the bridge and get the weapons ready. It'll just take a minute to program the autopilot." He said still slightly in awe of Falco's conversation with Krystal.

xxxx

Krystal and Falco now sat in the bridge and watched the Wolfen take its place about a hundred yards in front to the Great Fox II. Slippy ran through the doors of the bridge almost tripping on the frame. "Did I miss it?" He yelled.

"Don't worry Slip, I wouldn't dream of doing this without you around." Faclo chuckled at the panting toad. "If you don't mind Krystal, I think it would be only fair if you were to have the honor." Falco said motioning her towards the weapon controls.

"Thanks Falco." she said after taking a seat at the main cannon controls.

The Wolfen just sat there in the emptiness of space, completely unaware of the destruction that would soon fall upon it. Krystal brought up the crosshairs of the cannon and placed them directly in the center of the Wolfen.

"Alright." she said. "3... 2... 1…"

The black void of space was instantly lit up with brilliant bright colors as the shots from the main cannon collided with the Wolfen. It exploded into a beautiful spray of bright orange and yellow fire, as pieces of the ship flew in all directions. Some headed towards Corneria only to be burnt up in the atmosphere, while others flew further in to the emptiness of space. Krystal watched and enjoyed the new sense of freedom that washed over her. She finally felt completely free of Star Wolf and new she would never fly another Wolfen for the rest of her life.

"Wow, nice shot Krystal." Slippy said "I can't believe it caused that big of an explosion."

"Yeah, good shootin blue." Falco complemented.

For a while they all just stood there and stared out the window of the bridge even though the explosion was long over. Krystal never replied to the complements, she was too lost in her own thoughts and feelings to reply before her concentration was finally broken.

"Oh Krystal, I forgot to ask you this earlier, but do you have a place to stay on Corneria yet?" Falco asked now once again concerned for the vixen.

"Oh god, I haven't even thought about that." She replied wondering how she could be so completely oblivions to the fact that she had nowhere to stay.

"Well if you need to, you could stay here on the Great Fox for a few days while you find some place to stay on Corneria." Falco suggested.

"Oh Falco... I couldn't, I mean you don't have to-" Krystal said before being cut off.

"Don't worry about it, it's no problem." Falco chuckled. "You can stay in your old room while you look for a place to stay. You still remember where it's at, right?"

"Uh... yeah, thanks Falco." Krystal said. She didn't understand why he was being so nice to her; surely he knew it was her fault for Fox's death. Why was he being so nice to her? Not only that, but Falco was usually never this nice when she was back on Star Fox. She had to find out. "Falco... why are you doing this? Why are you being so nice to me?"

"Ha, listen, I may act like it sometimes but I'm not a _**complete**_ asshole." he chuckled. "Besides, if Fox were here, he'd kill me for not doing everything in my power to help you."

"Thanks Falco, I'll try and find a place as soon as possible." She said now understanding why he was being so nice.

"Don't worry about it Krystal. Take as long as you need." Slippy said adding his thoughts on the matter.

"Thanks you guys." The vixen said before grabbing her bags and headed towards her old room.

Once she was out of the room and out of ear shot, Slippy looked up at Falco who was still standing with his arms crossed.

"Uhhhh... Falco, if Fox ever finds out what you told her he is going to kill you."

"Don't worry about it, I'm sure he'll thank me later." the avian chuckled

"Whatever you say, it's your funeral."

"Well actually, it's Fox's funeral." Falco said, still chuckling.

xxxx

Hmm I wonder what Falco and Slippy were talking about earlier lol (kind of obvious) Anyway, read and review.


	5. Chapter 4: Fox's Memorial

Chapter 4: Fox's Memorial

She walked down the long familiar hallway that led to her room. It was located just across Fox's and once she reached her door she set her bags down and turned to face his door. For a while she just stood there with her paw on his door. Finally she took a deep breath and opened the door to Fox's room. Once she entered the room she flicked on the lights and let out a sad sigh. Although she knew it was impossible, some part of her wished she would see Fox lying on his bed as if he had never died. She slowly walked further into his room towards his bed, carefully taking a seat on his mattress. It was soft, and soon she found herself laying down resting her head on Fox's old pillow. Burrowing her face into it, she breathed in deeply trying to take in as much of Fox's familiar sent on his pillow as she could, desperately wishing he was still alive. As she lay there enjoying the smell of Fox's sent, she opened her eyes to see something odd sitting on his nightstand. She sat up to get a better look at the object before realizing it was an old photo album. Picking it up, she carefully opened the album and began to look through the pages of memories that the team shared. She remembered all the good times she had when she was back on Star Fox and noticed that there were a few pages with photos missing as she flipped through the album. There were many picture of the team making goofy faces at the camera and celebrating various things like a successful mission or holiday events. As she got towards the end of the book, a familiar photo stuck out to her. It was a picture of Fox and her standing together on the bridge of the Great Fox. She remembered that they were celebrating Fox's birthday the day the photo was taken. She had her right arm wrapped around his waist and he had his left arm over her shoulder. She couldn't help but laugh at the photo noticing the massive blush on his face as he smiled.

Her laughter soon turned into tears and she dropped to the floor on her knees and began to cry uncontrollably. She cried at the fact the no one would ever be able to celebrate Fox's birthday again. She cried because now, there would never be any more celebrations with Fox... and it was all her fault. "If only I had never left him." She cried. "He would still be alive."

"Hey Krystal, me and Slip were going to go get something to... "Falco started to say until he saw the poor vixen crying on the floor."Krystal, hey what's wrong, what's a matter."

"It's my fault... It's all my fault he's dead!" She cried, tears streaming down her muzzle.

"What... Krystal, no it's not." Falco said trying to comfort her.

"Don't give me that Falco!" She screamed. "It's my fault he's dead... do you honestly think he would have killed himself if I was still on the team!"

"Krystal tha-

"Admit it, if I had never left then he never would have killed himself and he would still be alive. It's all my fault!" She yelled.

"No, Krystal...

"Stop it Falco, just stop it. Stop being so nice to me. It's my fault he's dead, you should hate me!" She said while on her knees facing the ground, allowing her tears to pool on the cold hard floor.

"Krystal...

"Please... just stop." she said, voice now barely louder than a whisper. "Just... just leave me alone."

Falco just stood there for a moment watching Krystal weep on the floor of the room knowing nothing he could say would cheer her up. He walked out of Fox's room and shut the door behind him and just leaned on the wall next to the door with his back.

"DAMN IT!" he yelled slamming his fist on the wall behind him. _Fox you selfish ass, why didn't you listen to me?_

xxxx

Two days passed and it was now the day of Fox's memorial ceremony. The entire time Krystal had stayed in Fox's room tiring to recover from her recent breakdown. She knew she had to get over her problems so she could pay her respects to Fox and talk to Peppy about becoming a flight instructor. She left his room and headed towards the bridge of the Great Fox.

As she walked though the large doors to the bridge she noticed Falco and Slippy dressed in black suits.

"God; I friggen hate these monkey suits." Falco complained

"Yeah, but your sure as hell not showing up to Fox's memorial dressed in your flight suit. The press would have a field day with that." Slippy chuckled.

"I wish those bastards would just leave us alone. Isn't it bad enough that we just lost our friend." the avian said straitening his tie. "Sometimes I honestly think those people are heartless."

"Yeah I remember that one time... Oh... hi Krystal." Slippy said as he noticed Krystal standing in the doorway of the bridge.

"Hey Slippy," she said quietly as she watched them turn their attention towards her.

"Hey Krystal, how you feeling?" Falco asked now seeing her for the first time since her breakdown.

"Better now, thanks... sorry about earlier." She said still looking at the ground in shame.

"Hey, no prob; I know you won't agree with me but I just want you to know then neither me nor Slippy blame you for his death. Okay."

"Okay Falco, I get it, but that doesn't change how I feel." she explained.

They all just stood in the bridge before Falco once again broke the awkward silence.

"Well, enough about that." he said slightly chuckling. "Have you looked in a mirror lately?"

"No... Why?"

"No offence," he said now laughing, "But you look like hell."

"What?" she said before walking towards the nearest mirror to assess the damage. It had been two days since she left Fox's room and she hadn't showered or changed her clothes the whole time.

"Oh my god... I look awful." she said looking at her reflection.

Her fur was matted and her hair was a mess. It made her look like some sort of deranged mental patient.

"Falco, what am I going to do. Fox's memorial is in less than an hour."Krystal said now starting to panic.

"Don't worry about it," he said still laughing. "Just go take a shower and get ready. Me and Slip are gonna head down their now and save some seats so take your time."

"Thanks Falco, but your still an ass." she said now slightly laughing.

"I know, alright you go get ready now and we'll meet you down there. Come on Slippy, let's get going."

"All right, see you down there Krystal." Slippy said as he followed Falco to the hanger.

"Okay, thanks you guys. I really appreciate this."

As soon as they left the room Krystal headed back towards her room, which she still hadn't entered since she had been on the ship. When she opened her door she remembered it was just the way she left it. The room was slightly messy seeing as how the last time she was in it she was in a rush to pack her things to leave."How could I have been so **dumb**," she thought. She quickly jumped into the shower in a hurry to get ready for Fox's memorial in time. It took her about ten minutes to fully clean and fix the days of damage done to her fur. Once she was done she put on the only black dress she had in her possession and made her way to the hanger. Before she could get to her new ship a pain struck her and caused her to grab her stomach in pain.

"Crap." she said aloud to herself realizing that she hadn't eating in days. "Oh well, I've still got time before it starts."

She turned around and headed to the kitchen to grab something to eat. She quickly poured herself a bowl of cereal and ate it before heading back to her Arwing in a hurry to get to Fox's memorial.

xxxx

The memorial was held in a massive hall; only allowing a few hundred people to actually attend while crowds of people who couldn't get in formed outside. Inside the hall there were dozens of bouquets of flowers sent from people who hadn't even met the Fox personally. There were large wooden benches all in line with each other only to be split down the middle forming a path. At the end of the path was a large wreath with a picture of Fox inside of it, and a podium right beside it to allow speeches to be made.

Krystal took her seat next to Falco and Slippy in the front of the room closest to the wreath. She felt as if she could cry, but because of the two days earlier she no longer had the tears left. Soon the room was filled to the brim with people wanting to attend the memorial and after a half an hour of waiting the service finally started. She noticed Peppy sitting with his family in the bench adjacent of the one she was in.

During the memorial there were many speeches given about Fox, naming the various things he had done for Corneira and its people. All the speeches were pretty much the same thing, only worded and said differently. After about two hours of speeches the people at the ceremony were allowed to get up and talk with each other to discuss things with their families and pay their respects to Fox. Krystal noticed Peppy getting up and walking alone towards the wreath with the picture of Fox in it. If there was a time to talk to him alone, now was it.

She read his mind to see what he was thinking and only flattened her ears in sadness at his thoughts. He was taking Fox's death pretty hard. To him, Fox was like the son he never had, not only that but Fox was his best friends son. She also sensed that he still held hope of Fox returning. Suddenly she remembered that no one but her and Star Wolf had actually seen him die, and all of Corneira still thought he was missing. She than started to wonder how Falco and Slippy new about how Fox had killed himself. '_Did Fox plan it? Did he tell them? Or maybe they didn't know until I told them and they just went along with it.' _She wondered but before she could get deeper in her thoughts she felt a nudge on her side. Looking up she saw it was Falco who had nudged her and he then nodded his head towards Peppy._ 'Oh, right_.' Standing up, she slowly made her way towards the old hare.

"Hey Peppy." She said with a soft sad tone.

The hare turned around to see who it was addressing him when saw the familiar face.

"Krystal!" he shouted pulling her into a hug. "How have you been?"

'Still the same old rabbit,'she thought to herself hugging him back, wondering how she could think he wouldn't be happy to see her.

"Not to good considering where we are." she replied

"I know what you mean; I wish we could have met again on better circumstances."

"You and me both." She sighed, the fact that all of this was because of her weighed heavy on her heart, but she fought back the tears.

They stopped hugging and stood there allowing a silence to fall upon them.

"So Krystal... uh... how are things with you and Star Wolf." Peppy asked awkwardly, breaking the silence.

"Oh, well I decided I didn't want to be a part of Star Wolf anymore so I left."

"Good for you," the hare replied, obviously happy to hear the information. "I always knew you didn't belong with that gang of trouble makers."

"Thanks Peppy, I honestly don't know what I was thinking when I joined them." she lied knowing full well it was to get back at Fox for kicking her off the team, making her hate herself a little more at the sad realization. "Uh... Peppy, I hate to ask you this but seeing as I'm no longer a part of Star Wolf, I was wondering if you could do me a favor."

"A favor?" he asked

"Yeah, I was wondering if you could maybe sign me up for that teaching class at the academy this summer."

"The teaching class? You mean the one to train flight instructors? Yeah I can sing you up. It just so happens I have one more position left to fill, but can I ask why?"

"Oh... well seeing as Fox taught me everything I know about flying, I figure it would only be right for me to... to pass on his skills." Krystal explained nervously, hoping she wouldn't offend him in some way.

"Well in that case I will get you sighed up as soon as possible." he chuckled.

"Really?"

"Sure," he said happily. "I think you'd make a great teacher."

"Thanks Peppy," she said pulling him into a hug, "you have no idea what this means to me."

After she was done talking to Peppy she made her way over to his daughter, Lucy, to talk to her and ask how things were going. Even after she left Star Fox, she still remained good friends with Lucy, but hardly had the time to talk with her. She was even closer friends with Katt Monroe, but Falco and her had a falling out which caused Krystal to lose contact with the feline.

Soon the memorial was over and the many people that attended were starting to take their leave. Krystal flew her Arwing back to the Great Fox, eager to start looking for a new place to stay on Corneria while she trained to become a teacher. She hoped teaching would be a good way to get on with her life but she knew that for as long as she lived she would have a hole in her heart and a guilty conscience.

xxxx

A little sad don't you think. Read and Review please.


	6. Chapter 5: A New Fox

Chapter 5: A New Fox

The all too familiar sound of a heartbeat monitor was the only noise in the room as he slowly woke. He opened his eyes slowly and began looking around the small white room wondering where he was. Every inch of his body felt as if it was on fire and his head was throbbing with pain.

"Well well well, you're finally awake. That was quite the funeral you had Fox McCloud," A voice chuckled "or should I say, Isaac Fang."

Fox sat up in his bed and looked in the direction of where the voice had come from. Standing in the doorway of the room was a short and rather old looking ape. He had short white hair and wore large thick glasses on his face. As he looked at the familiar ape, he remembered where he was and a slick smile formed on his face.

"So it worked? They think I'm dead?" Fox asked now trying to get up from his bed.

"Well you were missing for two weeks so you were declared officially deceased." The ape scoffed. "But as to whether or not they think you are actually dead, is another question entirely. I'm sure there are some out there who still have hope of you returning alive. After all, you are, or _**were**_, the legendary Fox McCloud."

"Works for me." the vulpine stated, fully aware that the chances of a pilot coming back alive after missing for more than two weeks was extremely slim, even for someone with his level of skill.

He got up and looked down at his arms, noticing that they were no longer his natural russet reddish brown color. He walked to the only mirror in the room to get a better look at his new fur color. Looking at himself in the mirror, he ran his fingers through his fur taking full notice of its new color. It was a much darker and deeper red than his previous color, so dark in fact that it was now closer to dark brown in color than red. As he looked at his reflection, he also noticed the damage that the acidic oceans of Venom had done to him. Even after two weeks, he still had singed and melted looking patches of fur all over his body. He then ran his fingers through the fur on his head where his white stripe used to be. He missed it, and it slightly pained him to have it covered up. It was one of the only things besides his emerald eyes that made him different from everyone else, it made him unique.

"Don't worry about your fur. The damage isn't permanent and after another week, it'll look good as new." The ape chuckled.

"Thanks," Fox stated still looking in the mirror. "By the way, how long is this dye supposed to last?"

"The dye you now ware on your fur will last you about two years, and no matter how hard you scrub or wash, it will never fade or come off. I should know, I designed it myself." The ape laughed smugly. "It should also cover up your sent too."

"My sent?" He asked.

"Well, yes your sent." He said. "Even something as simple as your smell could give you away, and that's especially true for other members of your species."

"Oh, well that makes sense... I guess."

"Yes it does," the doctor retorted "That reminds me, I suggest you stay away from and acetone."

"Acetone?" Fox asked curiously.

"Yes, it's the active ingredient in nail polish remover and other things like paint thinner," he explained. "Unfortunately, as durable and resistant as my dye is, it is helpless to the effects of acetone. One splash of nail polish remover and it will wash the dye off you like it was nothing."

"I see, thanks for the warning doctor...?"

"Remerzi, after all this time is still can't believe you don't remember my name." Remerzi chuckled.

"Sorry, a recent blunt force trauma to my skull must have made me forget." he laughed.

"Yes well, thanks to your precautions, the damage wasn't as serious as it could have been." he stated before suddenly getting serious. "Now, on to other matters. You are going to want to do something about those eyes of yours."

"My eyes?" he said looking back at the reflection. Fox looked into his own eyes and a sudden rage began to build within him. He couldn't stand the look of his eyes. It wasn't the color he hated; it was look his eyes gave off that he couldn't stand. Ever since Krystal had left him for the second time he noticed his eyes matched his broken heart. They were no longer bright and alive, instead they now looked cold, dead, and empty. Although he was alive, his eyes begged to differ. If anyone looked into them they would see his suffering and know that he died on the inside long ago. He slammed his fist into the wall next to him in anger, putting a dent in the metal. No matter what he said, no matter what he did or how hard he lied, once someone saw his eyes they would know something was wrong with him. They would know he was hiding something.

"Hmm... here try these." the doctor said handing him a small plastic case "I also designed these myself."

"What are they?" Fox asked opening the case to reveal two small silicon circles floating in some sort of liquid solution.

"These are your new eyes?" Remerzi chuckled.

"My new eyes?" the vulpine said looking from the silicon disks to the ape.

"Well to be more precise, these are contact lenses," He explained "They won't aid your eyesight in any way, but they will change your eye color to something more... common, yes that's the word. You see, not many creatures have your unique emerald eye color. These will turn your eyes from green to brown, to help you blend in and hide your true identity.

"Hmm, good point." He said looking back at the lenses. He picked one up and placed it on the end of his figure. He wasn't used to sticking things into his eyes so it took him a while as he struggled to get them in. After ten minutes of trial and error he eventually got both of them in an immediately noticed he couldn't feel them on his eyes. He looked back into the mirror to get a good look at his new eyes. Unfortunately the only thing that changed was the color of his eye; they still gave off that sad cold look. He hoped the new color would make it go away, but the look just stayed there, cold and empty as ever.

"So what do I need to know about these?" He said addressing the doctor and pointing to his eyes.

"Well, unlike most contact lenses that need to be removed daily, I designed these to stay in a person's eyes for as long as they want them in." the doctor stated. "So as long as you want them in, they can remain in your eyes forever. You shouldn't feel them what so ever, but unfortunately there is a small chance that one could fall out. Keep in mind though that it's a very small chance so you needn't worry, but if one does just throw on some sunglasses and contact me. I will send you a replacement, and while we are on the subject, you will also need to contact me in two years so I can send you some more dye.

"Sunglasses huh," Fox said as an idea crossed his mind. "You really seem to know what you are doing." He stated bluntly

"Well I should certainly hope so; I've been in this business quite some time you know." Remerzi scoffed. "Oh, and before I forget, Do you plan on making contact with anyone you knew in your previous life?"

"Uhh... well, yes actually, why?" he asked curiously.

"Well I only ask because there's nothing I can do about your voice, and I'm sure if you're going to have any contact with people who once new you, they might grow suspicions once they hear your voice, and you still have all your same facial features."

"Sooo... "

"So, if a clever enough mind puts two and two together they might look into you and discover your secret." the ape finished.

"Well is there anything I can do to prevent that?" Fox asked, slightly panicking on the inside.

"Two things." the doctor stated. "One, you could have major reconstructive surgery on your face, or have surgery done on your vocal cords to change your voice, both of which will cost you time and money. Or two, you could plant the seed of deception."

"The seed of deception?" he asked with an obvious confused tone and his head cocked to the side.

"Yes." the doctor chuckled. "If anyone ever says or mentions that you sound like Fox McCloud, don't try to deny it. That will only arouse suspicion. Instead go with it, tell them that you have been mistaken for your former self before. You could even make up a clever back up story about you being constantly accused of sounding like your former self. This will completely throw off any one that suspects you. Thus, successfully planting the seed of deception. Trust me, I'm a doctor." Remerzi laughed at that last part.

"Alright," Fox laughed "you _**definitely**_ know what you're doing."

Remerzi laughed a bit at Fox's statement before continuing. "Okay, now down to the paperwork and your new identity. You will now go by the name of Isaac Fang."

"Isaac Fang?" Fox asked, wondering where on Corneria the doctor had gotten that name from.

"Yes." Doctor Remerzi stated while handing Fox a small stack of papers. "Here is your birth certificate, and any other official government documents you will ever need. Along with some backup information about your new past life of course. Now follow me if you please."

Remerzi left the small room and Fox quickly followed. The simian led him to another small room. It was completely empty besides a large white sheet hanging on the wall and a camera sitting on a tripod in the center of the room with cables leading to a computer and an odd looking grey box.

"Alright, now if you don't mind please stand in front of the white sheet, face the camera, and smile." Remerzi commanded.

Fox did as he was told and stood in front of the white sheet and smiled into the camera. A large flash went off, blinding the vulpine, "Jeez, I might need some contacts to help my vision now. God that was bright." He said, rubbing his eyes.

The ape just ignored him and began typing something into computer. Soon the odd grey box began making noises and grinding sounds before finally spitting out a small card. Remerzi picked up the card and handed it to Fox. "Here, this is your new pilot's license."

Fox picked up the card and inspected it. The new perfect fake license now had his new perfect fake identity on it. Fox turned to thank Remerzi but before he could speak he was handed a small stack of blank papers and a pen.

"What's this?" Fox asked.

"This is for you to practice writing your new signature. After all you can't sign Fox McCloud anymore, so you need to practice a new signature while you're still here." the ape answered.

"Speaking of which, how long am I going to stay here... wherever here is." The vulpine questioned.

"You only need to stay here for another night, so I suggest you rest and practice your new signature." Remerzi once again answered. "As for where you are, don't worry your on my ship orbiting Venom. Remember? It was what you requested."

"Oh right, well like I said before, I hit that water pretty hard?" Fox joked.

"I'm surprised you didn't die." The ape chuckled. "That little stunt you pulled really worked. When I picked you up in my submersible you had a fractured wrist and some cracked ribs, but other than that you were completely fine. Other than the acid burns of course, which was the main reason I kept you unconscious for two weeks. What you are feeling now is pale in comparison to what you would have felt if I were to wake you the day you fell. I also needed time to apply the dye to your fur."

Fox started to blush and get uneasy after realizing that the doctor had covered his _**entire**_ body with the dye.

"Don't worry, I'm a doctor." He said noticing the vulpine's uneasiness. "It's nothing I'm not used to."

Remerzi's statement still wasn't making him feel better. He didn't like the fact that the doctor had seen him in the nude, let alone rub the dye all over his body while he was unconscious.

"Oh and before I forget I believe this belongs to you." The ape said pulling out a small black box and handing it to Fox. "I pulled out of one of the pockets of your pants. I'm surprised the acid didn't even leave a mark on it. By the way, what exactly is that little contraption?"

"This little beauty," Fox said holding up the little black box for the doctor to see. "Prevents anyone from reading my thoughts."

"Your thoughts?" The ape questioned and cocked an eyebrow.

"Yep, it was most important part of my plan." He said staring down at the little black box that was the only reason that allowed his plan to work. He began to remember the day he reviled his plan to the team

xxxx

hahahaha the doctor saw Fox naked… I'm messed up :P If you haven't figured it out already, Fox never died. Please read and review


	7. Chapter 6: The Plan

Chapter 6: The Plan

"You want to do WHAT!" Falco screamed. "Fox you've got to be joking, there is no way I'm letting you kill yourself."

"Relax Falco, I'm not going to actually kill myself." Fox explained "I'm just going to... uhh, pretend to die."

"Oh well jeez I guess that not bad at all." Falco retorted with heavy sarcasm.

Fox gave a sigh, "Falco I'm serious; I just can't stand it any longer."

"What, what can't you stand?" Falco yelled.

"My life." He said, plopping down in a chair and putting his paws on his forehead.

Falco noticed the sadness on his friends face and heard the depression in his voice. "Jeez Fox, I knew you were down but I didn't think it was this bad." The avian said, realizing that Fox was completely serious.

"I'm tired Falco. I'm just so god damn sick and tired of it all." He said looking up at Falco. "No matter where I go, people are always harassing me. Not only that but ever since we defeated the Anglers, we haven't gotten a single mission. I'm tired of having nothing useful to do and whenever I have time to myself I can't help but think of… think of her." He said placing his head back in his palms.

"Fox… is this about Krystal?" Falco asked.

"I'm not going to lie and say no, but she's only one reason I want to do this." He said sadly.

Falco let out a long sigh, "Well alright Fox if this is something you truly feel you have to do, then I guess there's nothing I can do to stop you." he said, knowing all too well how stubborn Fox was.

"Thanks Falco, I know you don't agree, but this is something I've got to do." Fox said, relived that his friend was taking the news better than he expected. "Slippy should be here any minute with the most important part of my plan."

"What! Slippy already knows, and what plan! Fox, just how long have you thought about this!" Falco squawked.

"A long time Falco, I've thought about this for a long time." Fox chuckled halfheartedly. "Once Slippy gets here I'll tell you everything."

"God Fox, I thought this was a sudden consideration. I didn't know you already set this in motion… and how come you told Slippy before me?" the avian said.

"I told Slippy about a week ago because I needed his help with something really important." Fox laughed "He reacted exactly like you did."

The doors to the bridge suddenly opened and in walked a short green toad caring a case of some sort.

"Did you finally tell him yet?" Slippy asked Fox.

"Yeah, did you get them? Fox questioned.

"Yep, they're right here." He said setting the case he was carrying down on the table and opening it to reveal three small black matchbox sized boxes.

"What the hell are these?" Falco asked, tired of being left in the dark.

"These," Slippy said picking up one of the small black boxes. "Are anti-mindreading devices."

"What?" Falco Squawked.

"They stop people from reading your mind." Fox explained.

"Yeah I got that, but where did you get them from and what for?" Falco asked

"Oh, well I got them from my dad." Slippy answered. "What was it? About a month after Krystal joined the team would you say Fox?"

"Sounds about right" Fox confirmed

"Right, anyway" Slippy continued "So about a month after Krystal joined the team for the first time, I told my dad about her ability to read minds. He got a little paranoid and wondered if there were more people with her abilities. Fearing that these people might want to read the thoughts of important government officials and scientists, he developed these to prevent any dangerous secrets from being stolen by telepaths."

"Okay, that makes sense… I guess." Falco said with and confused look "But why do you have three of them?"

"One's for me, one's for Fox, and one's for you" Slippy explained.

"Wait what, why do I need one? Why do we even have these?" Falco asked once again confused

"Come on Falco, keep up" Fox said "Krystal is a mind reader, and now that we all know what I plan on doing, if she ever reads any of our minds it would completely ruin my plan."

"Alright I get it, sheesh calm down." Falco said, picking up his anti-mind reading devise to get a better look "Just how do these things work anyway?"

"Oh, well just press the button and make sure the little green light is on to make sure it's working." Slippy explained. "As long as you have it near you then nobody should be able to read your thoughts."

"Alright I get it." The avian stated "But wait, won't Krystal get suspicious if she can't read all of our minds."

"Yes, that's why I programmed these two especially for us." Slippy said pointing at his and Falco's anti-mindreading device. "Fox has the normal one that blocks out thoughts completely, but yours and mine only block out thoughts relating to a certain subject; that subject being Fox."

"So wait, let me get this straight." Falco said scratching his head "So any thought that is the slightest bit related to Fox is completely blocked out?"

"Yep, I made the program myself." Slippy stated proudly. "It took some time but it wasn't too hard."

"Alright I get it, you're a genius. Calm down before your brain melts." Falco said "Okay I get what the black boxes are for, but I still have no idea what your plan is Fox.

"Oh, well let's see." He said as he scratched nervously scratched the back of his head "Well I kind of plan on faking my death in front of Krystal."

"WHAT! Fox are you sick in the head, why would you want to do that to her!" Falco screamed.

"No I'm not, she just needs to know that I won't be around to hurt her anymore" Fox said looking down in shame.

"Fox, how can you think this **won't** hurt her?" Falco yelled.

"Because!" Fox yelled back and then spoke quietly. "She doesn't care about me anymore, she has moved on. I am no longer important to her."

"Fox… I don't think that's quite true," Falco said

"It is Falco, she told me herself." The vulpine said sadly. "I just need to let her know that I will never be around to bother her anymore."

"Fox I don't think sh-

"Enough… I don't want to hear it Falco. I've made up my mind." Fox interrupted.

"Alright fine, whatever." Falco said giving up on the subject. "How do you plan on going through with it?"

"I plan on falling to my death." he stated. "I'm going fall about a hundred feet from my Arwing into the oceans of Venom."

"A hundred feet! How the heck do plan on surviving that?" Falco said with concern. "Plus, the oceans may not be as lethal as they once were but thirty minutes in that water and your toast."

"Don't worry Falco, I've got it all under control." Fox reassured him.

"How?" he questioned.

Fox let out a sigh before answering "Well for the fall, I plan on using some explosives to break the water tension right before I actually make contact with the water. As for the exposure to the acidic oceans themselves, don't worry, I won't be in the water for long."

"What do you mean you won't be in the water for long?" Falco asked.

"Uhh... well I kinda hired some outside help for the last part." He said scratching the back of his head again. "When I'm in the water, the guy I hired is going to recover me in a small undetectable submersible."

"What do you mean you hired some outside help? Who is it?" the avien demanded.

"Calm down Falco, I'm not gona tell you his name but I'll let you know that he's a doctor that specializes in faking peoples deaths and giving them new identities." Fox explained.

"Specializes in faking peoples deaths?" Falco said with confusion in his voice. "How the heck did you come across this guy?"

"Yeah, supposedly this guy is an expert in what he does. He said he's going to change my appearance so no one will recognize me, he'll probably just dye my fur a different color or something." The vulpine explained. "As for how I came across him, you really don't need to know."

"Supposedly! How do you know that this guy won't just take the money you're paying him and let you die?" Falco asked wondering if his friend really thought this plan through.

"Because," Fox chuckled "He doesn't get paid until I've got my new identity."

"Okay I get it, but what's your new identity going to be? Who will you be known as?"

"Don't know," he simply stated "He told me he would give it to me once I faked my death. He said it was to make sure that nobody knew who I was going to become in case someone was listening in on our conversation."

"What is this guy paranoid or something?" Falco asked "And by the way, how on Corneria do you plan on getting Krystal to meet you on Venom?"

"Well for your first question, he's just playing it safe. Apparently, he has been doing this for a long time." Fox explained. "As for your second question, it's really quite simple."

"Alright then, enlighten me." Falco said with his arms crossed.

"Well Star Wolf is going to fly a patrol over Venom sometime next week." Fox said. "So all I have to do is just fly down there the day they do their patrol and leave my signal open. If I know Wolf, once he discovers my signal **he** will come find **me**."

"So you're counting on Wolf's ego to lead him and his team to you?" Falco assumed

"Exactly." Fox chuckled

"Okay, but once they find you what do you plan on saying before you... uh, kill yourself?" The avian asked.

"Not sure yet, I think I'm gona wing it." He said wondering what he was going to say to Krystal. "I think I'll just let her know I'm sorry for what I did and that I will never be around to hurt her anymore."

"Jeez Fox, that's kind of depressing you know. I know you don't think she cares about you anymore but I'm pretty sure she's going to take it hard." Falco commented, hoping Fox would rethink his plan

"She doesn't Falco, why would she lie about it. I'm glad she was able to move on and find happiness after what I did to her." he said looking down in shame remembering how bad he hurt her when he kicked her of the team. _What was I thinking?_

"Alright, let me get this straight," Falco said while rubbing his forehead with his thumb and index finger. "You're going to fly your Arwing about a hundred feet over the oceans of Venom. Then you're going to wait until Wolf and his team comes and finds you. After that you're going to say sorry to Krystal and then jump off your Arwing. Then before you hit the water you're going to detonate explosives to break the water's surface, making the impact much less severe. Once you're in the water the guy you hired is going to pick you up in a cloaked submersible before the acide eats you away, and give you a new identity and appearance. Am I right so far?"

"Yeah, pretty much."

"Okay so after that then what? And what about your ship, what are you going to do with it? Falco asked.

"After that I'm really not sure, the specialist I hired is going to explain it to me once I'm on his ship." Fox said. "As for my Arwing, I'm going to activate the signal jammer and program the autopilot to send it to a location in Venoms orbit where the doctor is going to recover it in his ship. Hopefully, Wolf and his crew will be too distracted while I'm falling to even notice it fly off."

"Alright then what happens after that?" Falco question.

"Jeez Falco, enough with all the questions. Don't worry about it, you're starting to give me a headache." The vulpine said rubbing his temples.

"You think you got a headache! I just found out my best friend wants to fake his own death. How the hell do you think **I **feel! Falco yelled.

"Okay, okay take it easy Falco I get it. It's a lot to take in, I know." Fox said

"Yeah it is. But I've got one more question" the avian said.

"Alright what is it." Fox sighed.

"Well why exactly do we need these?" Falco asked holding up his anti-mind reading device "I mean, I know it's to prevent Krystal from reading our minds, but what possible reason would she have to come see me and Slippy?"

"Oh, uh... well you see I kind of left her the Cloud Runner in my will." Fox said once again scratching the back of his head nervously.

"Wait what! You have a will? Since when?" Falco asked. "And why would you give Krystal back her old ship. Isn't that thing in pieces?"

"God Falco, you and your questions." Fox said rubbing his head "Yes I have a have a will, I made it to give Krystal back her old ship. You guys don't need it, and yeah it was beat up pretty bad the last time it was used, but I had Slippy fix it up as good as new. Isn't that right Slip?

"Yep, sure is" Slippy replied.

"Oh, and once she comes here to pick it up, do me a favor and be nice to her. Don't try and make her feel bad and don't say anything stupid, Alright." Fox asked

"I will, don't worry." Falco chuckled "But I can't guarantee you I won't say anything stupid."

"Good enough." Fox sighed.

"Okay, but Fox I gota ask. What do you plan on doing with your new identity once this is all over, and what about money? Falco questioned. "And better yet, what's going to happen to me and Slip? What's going to happen to Star Fox?"

"It's yours now Falco. The ship and everything, it's all yours. Change the name, take on new missions, do what you want because once I'm gone, Star Fox is your responsibility." He explained

"You can count me out too." Slippy said.

"What, why?" Falco asked.

"In case you don't remember I've got a wife back on Aquas to take care of, and I have been meaning to get back to her for some time now." the toad explained.

"Great, so that leaves me stuck here all by myself. What the heck am I supposed to do once both of you gone?" Falco complained.

"Well you could either permanently retire Star Fox, or you could look for new teammates. I'm sure if you asked, Katt would join." Fox chuckled, knowing the interesting on and off relationship Falco had with the pink furred feline, Katt Monroe."

"I hope it doesn't come to that." the avian sighed. "But you never answered my other question."

"If you must know I'm going to transfer all of my funds over to my new identity so money is definitely not going to be a problem, and as for the other thing... well I guess it wouldn't hurt to tell you." Fox explained somewhat reluctantly. "I plan on doing something useful with my new life and become a flight teacher for the Cornerian Academy."

"A flight teacher?" Falco asked with confusion.

"Yeah, Peppy is recruiting expert pilots for a class this summer at the academy to train them on to become flight instructors." the vulpine explained.

"Peppy? What's a General doing recruiting pilots to become teachers?" Falco asked.

"Well he's in charge of Corneria's defenses now isn't he, so doesn't it make sense that he personally makes sure that he's got the best of the best teaching the future pilots of Corneria's Air Force." Fox said, chuckling at Falco's ignorance.

"Okay, okay I get it. No need to laugh at me." Falco pouted. "But what makes you think you'd make a good teacher anyway."

"Well I taught Krystal how to fly didn't I. Now she's one of the best pilots in the galaxy." He stated proudly.

"Alright Mr. Big shot, so that's it. That's what your gona do? Falco asked rhetorically.

"Yep, I'm gona be a teacher."

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This chapter was made to explain Fox's plan and make things interesting. Ha-ha Falco totally screwed Fox over when he suggested Krystal become a teacher, after Fox went through all the trouble to get away from her. lol I wonder what's going to happen next :P Please read and review


	8. Chapter 7: The Test

Chapter 7: The Test

Fox woke lying in the same bed he had been laying on for two weeks straight. He sat up and stretched his muscles and planted his feet on the floor while still sitting on the bed. He rubbed his sore wrist when saw the large stack of papers that were now covered with thousands of copies of his new signature. He got up and walked over to the sink to splash some water on his face. The mirror over the sink reflected his new fur color which he still wasn't used to. Today was the day he was going to finally leave the vessel he was on, and try to start his new life on Corneria.

"You're awake once again I see." Remerzi chuckled.

"Yep, just washing up a bit." he replied.

"Well when you're ready, follow me to the hanger; I've got something to show you."

"Alright let's go." Fox said, barely able to hide his excitement because he was finally going to leave.

Fox followed the ape through a series of hallways before getting to two large doors, which he was sure led to the hanger. They walked through the doors and Fox's jaw dropped when he saw his Arwing and its new paint job. It was now painted completely black save for a single silver stripe down the center.

"I like to make sure all areas of my clients former lives are completely concealed." Remerzi explained before Fox could even ask. "I am very thorough."

"Wow." was all he could say as he walked around his ship taking in the new sleek paint job. He liked it.

"I took the liberty of also putting an extra set of clothes in your ship."

Fox looked down and realized he wasn't wearing the clothes had on the day he jumped. He then realized that the doctor must have also dressed him while he was unconscious because his former clothes were severely damaged from the acid. "Uh, thanks," he said slightly embarrassed.

"Don't worry about it." The ape chuckled. "It's the least I could do with what you're paying me. Now, I think you should be on your way. After all, you have a new life to live now."

Fox nodded and thanked him once again before climbing into his ship and taking off. 'Alright, first things first. Time to head to Corneria and see a certain rabbit about a class.' He thought to himself as he set his coordinates to Corneria.

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The Cornerian Academy was a very well-known school for training the best of the best of Corneria's Air Force. It consisted of many different buildings connected by large hallways and outside paths. There was usually more than one way to get to each of the different wings of the school. The North wing was where the physical training department was located. It consisted of a large gym with an indoor track and two large Olympic sized pools, as well as many other rooms used for other physical training exercises. On the left side of the North wing there were many weight rooms where the students could work on building their physical strength. On the right side of the North wing there was a hand full of large rooms whose floors were made of a soft gym mat like material. On the cushioned floors there was an arrangement of large white rings. These rooms were the sparing rooms and were used to train students in the art of hand to hand combat. The East wing consisted of classrooms and dealt with the newer and less experienced students. The West wing was similar to the East wing, but instead it was where the more experienced and skilled students were trained. Both the East and West wings of the academy also housed large rooms filled with rows upon rows of flight simulators, the West wings simulators being a bit more advanced seeing as it was where the best students were taught. Then there was the South wing of the academy. It housed the school's cafeteria, library, counseling offices, medical treatment center, and a rather large auditorium. In the center of the academy there was a large and beautiful court yard. It had a few large trees and many randomly scattered picnic tables to allow the students to study outside. The outside walls of the buildings consisted of an older type of red brick architecture and gave the school a more professional appearance. The inside however, had more of a modern type of appearance. The inside walls were made of large white and smooth bricks the size of cinder blocks. Located past the West wing, was the school's many hangers and launch pads. It was located many yards away from the school its self to make sure that no serious accidents would occur. The school also had many off campus dorm rooms for students not fortunate enough to live close to the academy.

Located less than a mile away from the grounds of the Cornerian Academy, was the largest military base on Corneria. Not surprising seeing as how almost all of the students who graduated from the flight academy immediately joined the military. It only made sense to build the two in close proximity to each other. The base consisted of many different barracks and large hangers and launch pads, along with a lot of other buildings and offices for military officials. This was also where the office of General Peppy Hare was located.

xxxx

"Excuse me, sir. There seems to be an Isaac Fang here to see you." the secretary said through the call box on her desk.

The old hare looked down at his call box in confusion. "Isaac Fang? I don't remember scheduling an appointment for anyone with that name." The General replied.

"You didn't sir, but he says it's urgent." The secretary said.

"Very well, send him in," he sighed.

Peppy sat in his office and waited for whoever this Isaac Fang was, to arrive. There was a knock at his door. "Come in" he said.

The door opened and a dark reddish brown fox stepped into his office. He wore a large pair of aviator sunglasses on his face that completely covered his eyes. Peppy looked at the fox and had a sudden feeling of familiarity. "Mr. Fang, I presume?" he said.

"Uh, yep that's me." The vulpine responded.

Peppy immediately noticed that he also sounded very familiar. "Excuse me Mr. Fang, but have we met?"

"No, uh this is my first time meeting you… General" Isaac answered nervously.

The General gave him a questioning look and sighed. "Well what is it that you want; as you can see I'm very busy." He said gesturing at his desk which was covered with stacks of seemingly important military documents.

"Oh, right, I came here to ask if you could sign me up for that flight instructor training class."

"Ahh, I see. Well I'm sorry to inform you but I just signed up my last pilot for the class last week." The hare answered. He saw the color almost immediately drain from the vulpine's face.

"What! That can't be true. Please… I need this class." Isaac begged with a panicked tone 'No, I've come too far to let something as stupid as this ruin my plans,' Fox thought. 'There has to be a way, there just has to.'

"I'm sorry but the class is full, I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to leave now, I have a lot of work to do."

"No, please, can't you make an exception." the disguised Fox pleaded "Trust me, I'm one of the greatest pilots in the galaxy, you would regret not signing me up for this class."

The vulpine's arrogance somewhat angered the hare, but at the same time it reminded him of someone he knew, someone he held very dear. He suddenly realized that the dark colored vulpine reminded him a lot of Fox.

He got up from his chair and walked over towards Isaac to get a better look at him. He stood there and stared at Isaac with a furrowed brow. Fox started getting nervous as Peppy stood next to him and eyed him up and down. 'Oh shit, I hope he doesn't know it's me' he thought with fear heavy in his mind.

Fox couldn't handle it anymore, he had to say something. "Well are you going to sign me up for that class or what?"

The hare frowned at the fox, "I told you the class is full, the only way you can convince me otherwise is to beat the Cornerian flight course record." He said trying to convince him how pointless it was.

"Ugh, Fine" Isaac sighed

"There, now you see how hopeless it is, I'm sorry but you're going to have to find something else to do." The General said somewhat sad that he couldn't help the vulpine.

"What? No… I meant, fine I'll beat the flight course record." Isaac said, clearing up the misunderstanding.

"WHAT! Does your arrogance know no bounds." he scolded "That record is impossible to beat, it was set the one and only James McCloud." The anger in his voice suddenly died down. "Not even... not even his son could beat it." He said with a heavy sigh.

Fox felt bad, he hadn't meant to hurt Peppy with his death but he knew he couldn't let him in on the plan. He was sure if he told Peppy, he wouldn't allow him go through with it. He also didn't want to have to beat his father's old record, that's why he never put any effort into beating it when he was put through the flight course when he was a student at the academy, but he knew he could do it. His father taught him all the tricks to it.

"Listen, I'm tellin you, I'm one of the best pilots in the galaxy, this flight course won't be a problem. Trust me." He said with a cocky tone.

Isaac's boastful attitude reminded him a lot of Fox, and if he was anything like Fox than he knew that the vulpine wouldn't take no for an answer. "You're not going to leave me alone until I watch you take that course, aren't you?" He sighed. '**Why** did I have to mention the course?'

Isaac smiled and gave a light chuckle, "I'm not trying to be a thorn in your side, but yeah, I really need to take that class and get my instructors license."

"Alright, fine, let's go."

"What… right now?"

"The sooner we get this over with the sooner I can get back to work, now come on, let's go." Peppy said as he got up from his chair and headed for the door.

Isaac followed Peppy out of the building as he led him to his car. Isaac got in the passenger seat and Peppy started the car and drove the short distance to the academy grounds. They didn't say a word to each other the entire ride. Peppy was too ticked off, and Fox was too nervous about giving himself away to start any sort of small talk. They eventually arrived at the school's hangers and got out. Peppy walked over to one of the hangers and entered the code on one of the electronic panels on its doors. The large metal entrance opened slowly to reveal a hand full of basic Cornerian fighter ships, with weapons removed of course; it was still a school after all.

"Alright, I assume you know the procedure." The hare said, as he walked over to one of the computer terminals on the hanger wall.

"Yep," Isaac said with a cocky chuckle. 'This is going to be a piece of cake.'

The disguised Fox McCloud walked over to the ship. It wasn't like an Arwing in any way what so ever; it was a standard Cornerian fighter and was way underpowered by comparison. It was shorter and had a more basic shape to it. It also had the standard grey paint job of most military vessels. He walked by with his hand rubbing along its nose and could tell that the ship was used a lot by the students for flight tests by all the chips and scratches it had. 'This has definitely seen better days' he thought. He opened the canopy and hopped in. The interior was just as worn as the outside. Looking down at the controls he chuckled; they were so simple and didn't have near the flight capabilities of his Arwing. Although it was different from what he was used to, it was so simple he could fly it with his eyes closed.

"Listen,** I** am telling **you**, that I don't care how good of a pilot you think you are; you're not going to beat this record." Peppy said, knowing full well that this was going to be a huge waste of his time.

"Well we won't know till I try," he replied with a smug laugh.

Peppy gave a sigh. "Alright fine, but you get one chance," he said holding up one figure "and once you fail that's it. No more bothering me, alright."

Isaac just laughed, "You really think I'm not going to beat this record don't you."

"I don't think so, I know so." The hare retorted.

He rolled his eyes behind his sunglasses, "Whatever, just start the course will ya."

Peppy started to type something into the computer terminal; shaking his head and grumbling angrily. 'This is such a waste of time. I should never have mentioned this course in the first place.' He thought. "Alright the course is up; just fly through the red ring to start the timer."

The Cornerian flight course was made up of a large array of seemingly randomly placed blue rings that were projected over the large forest next to the academy grounds. The larger red ring was the starting point and once it was flown through it would start the timer. Each time the pilot would fly through one of the main blue rings that scattered the sky, it would disappear. The point of the course was to fly through as many of the randomly scattered rings as fast as possible, and the timer wouldn't stop until every ring was flown trough. Every student had to beat the course in less than fifteen minutes, and most students that were lucky could beat it in ten minutes. The current record set by Fox's father, James, was two minutes and forty-eight seconds. Fox's dad had taught him the trick to it long before he was even in the academy. Then, when it was eventually his turn to take the flight test, he beat it in less than five minutes, and that was without trying. He didn't want to beat his father's record and sought to keep it record books in order to honor him. Now he didn't have a choice in the matter.

Isaac closed the canopy to his ship and taxied it out of the hanger. Once he was out on the launch pad, he ignited the hover jets and took to the sky. He flew towards the large assortment of rings that were projected into the sky and located the red ring that would start the timer, and flew straight for it. Peppy chuckled knowing that Isaac was about to make the first mistake. Instead of flying straight through the ring though, he banked to the right of it and looped around to come at it in a different angle.

Peppy's jaw dropped, "Oh god, he knows." He said out loud with a trembling voice.

Fox was now flying at the red ting from a diagonal angle. From the angle he could see that many blue rings were also in line with the angle at which he was flying. A second after he flew through the red ring he already had five of the other rings down. He then made a sharp bank to the right and saw another pattern of rings lined up in a diagonal path. He laughed at the simple pattern in which the course was made of. 'How come my father was the only one to figure this out,' He thought with a laugh. Within two minutes he had all almost all of the rings eliminated, all that remained was a set of rings aligned in a straight path with each other.

Peppy was now shaking at what he was witnessing. Here was this strange fox that he had never heard of, and he was now about to beat his best friends old record. He watched as Isaac fly through the last set of rings and then suddenly stop at the last one. 'What's he doing," he thought

Fox sat in his hovering ship and watched the holographic timer count up. He waited until the timer said two minutes and forty seconds. He then ignited his boosters and rocketed towards the last ring, ending the timer at two minutes and forty- five seconds.

Peppy's jaw was still hanging open as Isaac landed the ship and taxied it back to the hanger. The hare looked down at the terminal and saw that former record holder's name, James McCloud, was gone and it was waiting for him to input the name of the new record holder. He was both angry and sad as he entered in Isaac's name with trembling hands. He was in so much shock that he didn't hear Isaac get out of the ship and approach him.

"So, does this mean you'll sign me up?" The vulpine asked without any smugness in his voice. He truly didn't want to beat his father's record so he wasn't about to rub Peppy's face in it.

Peppy jumped in fright. "Oh god!" he screamed, grabbing his rapidly beating heart. "Don't do sneak up on me like that."

"Sorry," he chuckled, "but you still didn't answer me, will you sign me up or not?"

He looked at Peppy who just sighed in defeat, "A deals a deal isn't it. I will begin making the necessary arrangements."

"Great," Isaac said, relieved to hear the news. "So when does the class start?"

Peppy walked closer and started rub his chin and eye the vulpine in curiosity again. "July third… tell me something. Why did you hesitate at the end to beat the record?" he asked.

Fox was now growing nervous again. "I uh… well… I didn't want to make it look too good." He said, hoping that Peppy would buy it. He honestly didn't know why he waited either so it was hard to give him a good answer.

"Hmm, I see." He said, still rubbing his chin.

Fox wasn't liking the way Peppy was looking at him. "So, you said July third?"

"What… oh, yes you are correct." He said as Isaac broke him from his reverie.

'Good,' Isaac thought, 'that will give me more time to look for a better place to live.'

"But I want you to meet me at the academy grounds before that," he continued, "say the twenty-eighth of this month?"

"Okay sure, but why?"

"I'm going to need to explain you to the flight instructor teacher." Peppy answered. "He's going to want to know why there is an extra student in the class."

"Alright, see you then… uh, do you mind giving me a ride back to the base? My vehicle is still parked there."

"Sure why not, let's get going."

They both got into Peppy's car and rode back to the military base. As Peppy parked his car, Isaac got out and said thanks before making his way back to where he parked his vehicle. He smiled as he looked at his new vehicle. It was a long black motorcycle with red stripes going down its side. Anyone could tell it was fast just by looking at it. The bike was so long that he practically had to lie down to ride it. He threw on his helmet; taking care to tuck his ears into their proper place inside the helmet. He started its powerful engine and gunned it out of the base, heading back to the place he was currently staying.

xxxx

Hope you liked the chapter :) I wonder what's going to happen when Fox sees that Krystal is in the same class as him lol. Read and review please.


	9. Chapter 8: A New Home

Chapter 8: A New Home

Krystal awoke on her bed in the Great Fox, cold and shivering. It wasn't that she didn't have enough blankets to keep warm; in fact, she had herself wrapped up heavily in there warm embrace, and yet she was still cold. Not that this was unusual for her; waking up cold and shivering was something she had been suffering from for a long time. As far as she could recall, it started happening to her sometime after she joined Star Wolf. No matter how many blankets she covered herself in the night before; she would still wake up with an icy shiver creeping through her body.

Krystal sat up on her bed and let out a yawn while she stretched. She looked at the red glowing numbers on her digital alarm clock; they read 8:30 a.m.

Today was the day she was going to look for a home on Corneria. She yawned once again as she made her way to the bathroom to take a shower and freshen up. After she was done she put on a pair of light blue jeans and a purple top with an unzipped white jacket over it. She then made her way to the hangar and jumped in her Arwing to head for Corneria's surface. Peppy had given her special permission to dock and keep her ship in one of the hangars located on the military base near the academy.

After docking in her private hangar she got out and started her walk to the city. It was only a few miles away and she didn't mind the walk, but the first thing she was going to do after she found a place to stay was get some sort of personal transportation. First, however she needed to find out how much money she had in the bank, so that's where she headed.

xxxx

"WHAT! What do you mean I don't have any money in my account!" Krystal yelled. "The last time I checked I had well over 50,000 credits in there!"

"I'm sorry," the female lynx bank teller responded, "but all the money in your account was withdrawn a few days ago."

"W-what, by who!" Krystal demanded angrily.

The lynx quickly typed away at her terminal in fear for her life; Krystal was fuming with anger and scaring the hell out of the poor lynx. "I-it was t-t-transferred to the a-account of…" Her mouth opened in horror once she read the name of the account holder's name that Krystal's money was transferred to.

"WELL!" Krystal said, slamming her hands on the cashier's desk.

"P-P-Panther C-Caroso." The now terrified lynx answered. She didn't know who Krystal was, but the fact that she had some sort of connection to a member of Star Wolf, made her scared shitless of the blue vixen.

The bank teller saw Krystal's expression change from one of anger, to pure rage. "That bastard!" She screamed, "I swear, next time I see him, I'm gona make him wish he had never been BORN!"

Krystal was seriously pissed off. She should have known that he would drain her Star Wolf account to get back at her.

"I-I'm sorry, b-but… I-if there is nothing else y-you need from me-

"Wait!" Krystal yelled, causing the teller to jump in fright. "Just… just wait." She said in a calmer, almost sad voice. "Can you check another account of mine?"

The lynx noticed the sudden change in the vixen's attitude from rage to a sadness of some sort. "S-sure, what's the other accounts name under?"

Krystal's ears pinned down and her tail drooped. "It's under the Star Fox name." she said with sadness thick in her voice. She knew deep down that Fox had never touched her account after she left. It made her sad to know that he never tried to get back at her, even after she scorned him in the worst way possible.

The teller just widened her eyes in shock, "D-did you j-just say S-Star Fox?" she trembled. She now had no idea of what to think about this strange blue vixen. Not only did she have an account under Star Wolf's name, but also one under Star Fox's name as well. The only thing she did know was that this vixen was not to be trifled with.

"Y-yes… please, can you check that account for me?" Krystal pleaded.

The cashier didn't have time to wonder why the vixen was overcome by a sudden wave of sadness, she was still too afraid to mess around. "I-it s-seems you have exactly 5,000 credits in that account."

Krystal almost broke down in tears. It was the same amount she left in that account before leaving, just in case of emergencies, and just like she assumed Fox hadn't touched it. "T-thank you," she said, holding back tears. It wasn't a lot of money but she knew it would help her find a place to stay. She just had to find someplace cheap enough to last her while she took the flight instructor training class.

The teller saw the tears in the vixen's eyes as she turned and walked out of the bank. She couldn't help but feel sad for her; what ever happened between her and Star Fox must have been traumatic.

Krystal walked her way back to her hanger located on the Cornerian military base. She got in her ship and flew back to the Great Fox. She had meant to find a place to stay, but after her time at the bank she was too depressed to look for one. She made her way to her room after docking and let the tears she was holding in finally flood her face. She fell onto her bed and cried the rest of the day away, 'How could I have been so awful to him.' she thought. 'All he wanted to do was keep me safe from harm and protect, and what do I do. I turn around and join his rivals; and then to top that, I date a total creep, just to make him feel even worse.' Her tears poured down her muzzle. 'I took a sweet and caring fox, then warped and twisted his emotions around until he felt he could no longer live.' She was now screaming in agony with no one to hear her due to the thick metal walls of the Great Fox. "I wish he would have never met someone as horrible as me." She wailed.

xxxx

Fox's eyes slowly opened as he woke. He got up from the couch and held his back in slight pain as he stretched; his bones produced loud cracking and popping sounds as he did so. "Man, I have got to find a better place to stay." He said aloud to no one. He was currently living in the same hangar in which he kept his Arwing.

The first thing he did once he arrived on Corneria was purchase a private hangar. He felt he was lucky to find one that was very private and secluded in the middle of one of Corneria's many forests. It had roof that opened up to allow for direct take off.

The only thing inside the hangar, aside from his Arwing, was a couch on which he slept; it was starting to hurt his back. He walked out of his hangar towards a river that flowed nearby. Once he reached the running water he stripped down and jumped into the cold waterway in order to wash himself. Although it was cold, it also felt nice and refreshing as he scrubbed himself as clean as he could.

Once he was done he got out and shook himself dry; he then put on his only extra set of cloths back at the hangar. Walking outside towards his motorcycle, he couldn't help but chuckle to himself. It was more expensive than the hangar he was living in, but he didn't care; money was the least of his problems. He started its powerful engines and drove carefully down the winding path the led to the main road. He loved the feeling of the wind in his face and fur as he flew down the main road towards the city in order to find the nearest realtor office. He was planning on spending the rest of the day looking for a new home.

xxxx

"Alright, this is the last house on the list," The preppy realtor said. She was a cougar around her mid-forties in age.

"Finally," Fox groaned; he had been riding with the realtor looking at houses all day. Needless to say, he was board out of his mind. Not one of the houses she had shown him interested him in any way. Some were too close to the city, and others just looked plain awful; and he sure as hell wasn't going to live in an apartment. Not only that, but the realtor was seriously getting on his nerves. Her personality was so phony that it practically made him sick, that and the massive amount of perfume and eyeliner she wore. Her red cleavage revealing dress wasn't helping her either.

"This one's a little secluded but I think you'll like it." she said with her annoyingly over perky attitude.

'Yeah, that's what you said about the last ten.' He thought as he rolled his eyes behind his sunglasses. He did however like the part about it being secluded. "Well then let's go take a look at it I guess." He sighed.

She turned down a dirt road, and continued along its path. Fox noticed a couple of side roads that led off in all different directions. He had never been in this part of Corneria before, but he liked it. Like the realtor said; it was definitely secluded; he just hoped that a house this far from the city wouldn't be a total shithole.

The car finally made its way to the end of the dirt road and Fox's jaw dropped at the sight of the building. He gazed at the massive house, with its two car garage and the beautiful landscape that surrounded it. After pulling up the driveway, they got out and Fox followed the realtor inside the house.

He followed her around the house not listening to a word she was saying as she described each room. He was too captivated by the beautiful interior of the house. It had four bedrooms; each with their own bathroom, plus an extra guest bathroom and a large personal study. The kitchen and dining room were also large and had stunning wooden floors. Its massive living room housed the largest TV he had ever seen. Not only was the house beautiful, it was also fully furnished; which he immediately liked.

She led him into the master bedroom. It was by far the largest bedroom in the house and contained a massive king sized bed that looked so comfortable that one would get tired just by looking at it. Fox also liked the large walk in closet, but by far his favorite part of the room was the master bathroom.

He assumed it was for two people to share because of its two sinks, fixed in a beautiful granite countertop. The shower was so huge that Fox figured at least four people could lay down comfortably in it. However, the best part of the bathroom was by far, the massive Jacuzzi bathtub; it even had a TV embed on the wall next to it.

The realtor could tell with ease that he was very interested in the house, and she had only shown him half of it. "If you're excited now," she said, "Wait till you see the downstairs."

Fox was now really interested in what she said; if the upstairs was this awesome, there was no telling what the basement would be like. "Alright, lest go." He said, hardly able to control his tail as it wagged in anticipation.

She led him down a staircase and into a large room. Fox looked around the room with a slack jawed expression. The basement was a full sized gym; complete with a large assortment of dumbbells, barbell bench press, punching bag, treadmill, and even a full sized sparing mat. As his eyes scanned the room, they stopped when they came across and odd looking wooden door.

"What's that room?" He asked as he pointed at the wooden door.

The cougar smiled and walked over to the room with Fox following in suit. "Oh you're going to like this," she giggled as she opened the wooden door to reveal a small room.

Its walls were made of stone and its floor was tiled with a drain in the center. Built into the walls was a large wrap around pine wood bench. Fox observed each aspect of the room with a curios expression.

"What is it?" he asked.

"It's a steam room." She chuckled.

Fox was amazed; it seemed that this house had everything he could possibly dream of in it.

As if the realtor read his mind, she said, "If you like the inside, then you're going to absolutely love the outside." Fox was so enthralled by the incredible interior of the home that he had completely forgotten about the outside.

He once again followed the realtor as she led him through the house and out the sliding glass doors in the back. Fox's jaw was starting to hurt because he couldn't stop it from hanging open in sheer astonishment.

In the back of the home was a large beautiful stamped concrete patio. Attached to the patio was a large inground swimming pool, and connect to that was a hot tub. Fox walked closer to the pool's edge to gage its depth. As far as he could tell, at one end it was five feet and at the other side it seemed to be twelve feet. He grew even happier when the realtor said it was self-cleaning.

Looking up from his position he saw a stone path that led to a massive beach with a lake he could hardly see across. 'How the heck did I miss that." He asked himself. 'Not only does this house have a pool, but it's on a lake too.'

He walked down the stone path and admired the beautiful lush green lawn; it was obviously in need of a trim but other than that it looked great. Once he reached the beach his slid off his boots and walked barefoot on the soft sand. On his right he noticed a long wooden dock with a bench at the end and decided to walk out on it. As he walked the dock he looked down into the clear blue water at the clean sandy bottom. "Not a trace of seaweed," He chuckled.

Fox made his way back to the cougar who decided to stay on the grass as to not get sand in her shoes. "I'll take it." He said happily as he slid his boots back on.

"Great," she said, "let's get back to my office and fill out the paperwork." He could honestly hear the relief in her voice. She was obviously happy to be done dealing with him as much as he was with her. They both got into her car and made the long trip back to her office in the city.

xxxx

"Alright," She said from behind her desk, "How much can you afford for your monthly mortgage payment?"

Fox sat on the other side of her desk with a smile on his face. "Oh, don't worry about a mortgage; I intend to pay in full."

The realtor gave an expression that seemed to say 'yeah right.'

"I don't intend to be rude but this house is very expensive… and I mean no offence when I say this, but you don't seem to look the overly wealthy type." She said.

Fox wasn't angry in the slightest; in fact he started to laugh. "What? Haven't you ever heard the expression, 'don't judge a book by its cover,' just tell me the price and I'll pay it."

She sat behind her desk and shrugged as she wrote down a number on a piece of paper. "Okay," she sighed as she slid the paper across the desk for him to see, "but I'm telling you, it's expensive."

He looked at the large number on the paper and let out a long whistle. "Wow you were right, this _is_ expensive." He chuckled, as he pulled out his checkbook and began writing the exact price of the house on it. The house was definitely expensive, but he had enough credits to buy eleven of them and still have plenty left over to live comfortably for the rest of his life.

"Uh… what are you doing?" she asked as she eyed him while he was writing the check.

"Writing a check… you do accept checks don't you?" he laughed.

She gave him another one of her 'yeah right' expressions. "Oh come on, you can't honestly expect me to believe that that check is real."

"Actually, yes, I do." He said as he slid the check across the desk to her. "Now what do I sign that says I officially own this house."

She picked up the check and her eyes seemed to bulge out of her sockets after seeing that it was a legitimate check with the exact amount on it. "Here," she said as she slid him the proper paperwork for him to fill out. "But you can expect that if this check doesn't pass, I _will _have the authorities come after you."

Fox got up and laughed. "Well if that happens to be the case, you will know where to find me."

He then extended his paw for her to shake it. "It was a pleasure doing business with you Mr. Fang." She said shaking his hand.

Fox made his way out of the office building to the jeep he had purchased earlier that day. It was an old military style jeep that looked like it had seen better days, but the old war vet he purchased it off of took great care of the engine. The only real bad thing about it was that the jeep didn't have a top, so if it rained, he would get drenched.

Having a motorcycle was nice and all, but he needed something he could actually transport stuff in. Before getting in, he made sure his bike was properly secured to the trailer that he had also bought of the old war dog. 'Alright, one more stop to go before I can finally move in' he thought to himself.

xxxx

Fox drove his jeep slowly along the large storage lockers until he found the proper one. He parked his vehicle and got out to approach his storage locker. He carefully unlocked the padlock and lifted open the large garage door. Inside were things he kept that were too precious to risk bringing aboard the Great Fox.

He walked over to the red electric guitar his father had gotten him on his fourteenth birthday. When his father gave it to him, he practiced nonstop and even formed a small band to play the songs he had written. He once had a serious passion for music and his songs were actually really good. He couldn't explain how he came up with them. He would just get a sudden burst of passion and inspiration; then the music would form in his head as he wrote it. He could imagine the sound of every instrument in the band with precise detail as the song played in his mind. The only thing he loved more than music was flying, and after his father's betrayal and murder, he lost interest in his music and focused all his efforts on becoming a better pilot to avenge his father's death.

He picked up the old guitar that was priceless with sentimental value. "Wonder if I've still got it?" he asked himself.

Carefully, he tuned the instrument that had come out of tune over all the years of sitting untouched. After tuning the guitar to perfection only by ear, he began to strum its strings. He started off slow; playing a couple of simple chords. Then, after he got the feel for it, he unleashed an incredible fast pace riff on the guitar's six finely tuned strings. "Oh yeah," he chuckled. "I've still got it."

Setting the guitar down, he made his way over to a long metal footlocker and opened it up. Inside, it contained his most prized personal possessions: a pair of his dad's old sunglasses, his mother's favorite necklace, and many photos of his family and friends.

He began looking through them; there were some of him as a kit riding on his father's shoulders and others of his mother holding him while he wore a happy smile on his face. He stopped when he looked upon one of his favorite pictures; it was of him and Krystal that he had taken out of an old photo album back on the Great Fox. In the photo he was blushing bright red and his eyes were wide as Krystal was planting a kiss on his cheek; it was one of the best days of his life.

A tear made its way down his muzzle. "What was I thinking." He whimpered, trying to hold back the waterworks. "I should have known better. I should have known she could take care of herself but I let my selfish fears get the better of me and forced her of the team." Tears were now slowly rolling down his face past his sunglasses as he remembered the day he ruined both of their lives.

"Who am I kidding, I was never worthy of a girl as special as her; I deserve to be alone and miserable for the rest of my life." He knew that as long as he lived he would never love anyone as much as her. Wiping his tears away, he set the photo gently back into the footlocker and loaded his belongings into the jeep.

It was late out by the time he got to his new home and unloaded the motorcycle off the trailer he pulled behind his jeep. Fox carried the footlocker into his room and slid it underneath his bed. He then changed out of his clothes and crawled onto the large empty mattress and slid under the covers. The room was lonely as he stared towards the ceiling in the moon lit darkness. He felt as empty as the large house he was now living in. As his thoughts drifted from subject to subject, they eventually came to focus on Krystal. Even though he had faked his death and she thought he was dead, he was still in love with her. "Krystal," he said aloud. "I hope you're finally happy."

xxxx

Krystal awoke from her slumber shivering and still feeling awful from the night before. 'I need to stop doing this to myself," she thought to herself. "Fox wants me to be happy so that's what I'll do… even if it can never be truly accomplished." She sat up and put her palms over her eyes.

"Stop thinking like that. You're just going to make yourself cry again." She scolded herself.

Getting out of her bed she performed her morning routine of brushing her teeth, using the bathroom, and showering. _This time,_ she was going to find a place to stay, and wasn't going to stop until she did.

After reaching Corneria and walking her way to the city, she began her search with what little money she had. A house was way out of the question so she settled on finding an apartment. 'How expensive can they be?' she thought to herself.

She then spent the rest of the day learning the answer of that very question.

She was shocked to find that some apartments cost five thousand credits just to rent for a month; which was all the money she had. She found herself making her way further and further into the worst the city had to offer. She walked past the rundown and graffiti covered buildings, along the path of what she thought used to be a side walk. Making her way into a structure that she assumed was an apartment building; she rang the bell at the front desk.

A fat rat in a stained tank top that Krystal swore was white at some point, made his way to the desk. "Yeah, what do you want?" He grumbled.

Krystal could hardly keep herself from vomiting from the sheer smell of the rodent. "I was wondering if you had any rooms available?" she asked.

"Let me check." He said and then stood in his place and eyed her up and down; Krystal was really hoping that he would say no. "Yes, we do."

She knew she should have known better. "How much," She sighed.

"Five hundred a month," He answered.

It was by far the cheapest place she had found and she didn't have the luxury to be picky. "Alright fine, I'll take it."

The rat was still standing there and looking her up and down until his eyes became fixated on her breasts. "Here's your key." He said without looking up as he slid the key over the counter. "It's number six on the fourth floor. I expect first month's payment next week… but if that doesn't work out, I'm uh, sure we can arrange something." He said as he continued to stare at her in a perverted manner.

Krystal was now furious; she wanted nothing more than to rip that sick and twisted head of his off because all the revolting thoughts of what he wanted to do to her. Unfortunately, this was the cheapest place she could find and couldn't afford to beat him senseless…yet. "Fine," She said as she grabbed the key and made her way to the staircase. She could literally feel him staring at her ass as she walked away.

She opened the door to what was now her new home and was immediately disgusted. The room was small with heavily stained floors and walls. In the same room there was a counter with a sink and a tarnished looking fridge; she could only assume that this part of the room was the kitchen.

The whole room reeked of fecal matter, so she immediately walked to the single rotted window in the room and with a lot of force, lifted it open.

After realizing that the smell wasn't going to leave the room, she decided to test her bravery and enter the bathroom. It wasn't as bad as she thought but it was still a nauseating sight. It smelled worse than the main room and the toilet was covered with stains of which she could only assume was feces. The bathtub shower was covered with orange and black mold colored marks as well as the sink.

She sighed with unhappiness but knew that this was the best she would find at such a cheap rate. 'Oh well,' she thought drearily to herself, 'time to move in.'

xxxx

Once Krystal was back aboard the Great Fox, she began to reluctantly pack her bags. She had no idea how long she would be staying in the literal shithole that was now her apartment, but she really hoped that it wasn't for long. If she had asked, she knew that Falco would have allowed her to live on the Great Fox for a little while longer, but she had no intention of being a burden on him after all he had already done for her.

Seeing that Krystal's ship was back in the Great Fox's hangar, Falco made his was to her room to see how her search for a place to stay was going. He walked into her room to find her packing her bags.

"Hi Falco." She said with her back towards him as she continued to fold her clothing; which for some reason startled him.

"How'd you know I was here… oh, right, the whole telepathy thing. I forgot." He chuckled.

Krystal folded and placed her last piece of clothing into the bad and turned to face him. "Actually, I heard you coming."

Falco shrugged as he raised his open hands to shoulder height. "I never was any good at stealth missions," He sighed. "So, what's with the bags, you finally find a place to stay on Corneria?" He questioned.

The vixen turned to face him as she spoke. "Yeah, I did." She said with forced enthusiasm.

Falco smiled, "Well that's good. I was starting to wonder when you would finally get a place of your own… n-not that I don't enjoy having you hear." He said quickly, trying not to hurt her feelings. "It's just that I really need to start looking for some new team members."

"Speaking of team members, where's Slippy?" she wondered.

"He left the team to go back to Aquas to be with Amanda." He answered.

Krystal slightly cocked an eyebrow in confusion, "… Oh, right, I forgot he's married… It's just… to think of Slippy married, it's just weird."

Falco started to laugh. "Ha-ha yeah I know what you mean. Believe it or not they already have a kid."

The vixen's jaw dropped in astonishment. "What! They do? Really… I mean… I can't believe that Slippy… naïve little Slippy, has a child. Wow, that's just… wow." She stammered.

Falco grabbed his stomach as he started laughing harder at her reaction. "I know," he said through his laughter, "and believe it or not, but they have another one on the way."

Krystal started to laugh lightly. "Wow, who'd of thought he had it in him," she giggled. "Way to go Slippy."

"Ohahahah oh oh god," he said wiping the tears of laughter from his eyes. "I, haha, I needed that."

Krystal was still giggling lightly at how funny he thought it was and allowed him to calm down before asking. "So, who did you have in mind for a new teammate? Anyone in particular?"

Falco settled down from his laughing fit before answering her question. "Oh, uhh actually," he sighed, "I honestly don't even know where to begin looking."

Krystal began fidget nervously before saying, "Well… you could always ask Katt to join." She suggested, somewhat afraid he might be mad for mentioning her.

The avian hung his head and let out a longwinded sigh. "You're not the first to recommend that idea." He replied.

"Then why don't you?" She asked. "She certainly has more than enough skill, and you know as well as I do she would love to join the team,"

"W-what, I don't know what you're talking about." He replied with a slight blush.

Krystal's lips curled into a mischievous smile. She knew that Falco liked Katt, even if he tried his best to hide it. Katt on the other hand, had no problem expressing her feelings for Falco. "Come on Falco," she giggled. "I know Katt would die for a chance to join the team… if only to get a little closer to you."

Falco's face flashed bright red and his feathers were ruffled with embarrassment. "sh-shut up, sh-she would not." He stammered.

"Oh come on Falco, she's totally into you; anyone with a brain can tell." Krystal laughed. "Besides, she's one of the best pilots out there and you could use her help."

"I know, I know, it's just-

"Just what?" Krystal interrupted. "What are you so afraid of Lombardi?" she questioned.

The avian stood there with a sour look on his face. "Me, afraid, yeah right, I'm not afraid of anything." He said with his classic cocksure smile, trying to mask his emotions.

Krystal walked across the room and looked him straight in the eyes; she noticed his feathers were twitching ever so slightly.

"You can't fool me" She said as she poked him in the chest, "I can see right… through… you." She said while continuing to poke him.

Before he could refute her she continued. "I know that you like her, and I know that you're afraid she'd say no. But trust me Falco, she would _love _to join the team, and she would _love _to be with you. You just have to ask."

Falco backed away so she could no longer poke him, his face continued to glow red through his feathers. "W-Well I guess I could at least… try." He said as he let out a sigh of defeat.

Krystal gave him a cheerful smile. "That's the spirit." She chuckled.

Falco just shook his head and continued to sigh. "Well… now that that's over, do you need help with your bags?" he asked.

"Well, umm… actually I uh, before I go I was wondering maybe if you wouldn't mind if I uh, took some things from Fox's room with me?" She asked uneasily.

The bird cocked an eyebrow. "Like what?"

"Oh just a few things, nothing really important," she began, "I… I just want something to remember him by."

Falco stared at her with crossed arms. He knew it probably wasn't healthy for her to keep thinking of Fox, but he could tell she was hurting badly and could only imagine the guilt she felt. He was angry with Fox for putting her through such an ordeal, but at the same time he couldn't be mad at Fox. The vulpine had no idea she would take it this hard, for some reason he honestly thought that Krystal felt nothing for him and believed she wouldn't care if he died.

Falco would watch each day as his best friend slowly drifted away as he obsessed with his mistakes. He could see the depression slowly ate away at Fox, only to leave behind a shell in his place, but the worst thing of all was his eyes. Those cold empty spheres would shriek at him every time they made contact with his. Just the memory of those haunting eyes sent an icy tremble through his spine.

"Krystal…" he started, "I don't care what you take from his room… but please, don't obsess over his death." He said worriedly and put his hands on her shoulders. "I've seen what depression can do first hand… and it's an awful sight. I know Fox wouldn't want to see you like that, and I know that he doesn't want you blaming yourself for his death, alright." He said staring into her watering eyes.

She nodded, unable to talk for fear of breaking down again, but Falco was right. Fox would not want to see her like this, but she still wanted something to remember him by. She grabbed her bags and moved past Falco into Fox's room. The avian sighed and walked away, hoping that whatever he said would help her.

Krystal set her bags down in his room and looked around. She made her way across her room to his dresser and opened its drawers. All of his clothes were neatly folded in the wooden container. She began digging through the clothing until she found what she was looking for. It was a pair of gray sweatpants, the very same pair he lent her when she first joined the team.

At that time all she wore was her native Cerinian garb, which consisted of little more than a loin cloth and metal brasier, along with some additional armor pieces. She remembered the way Fox would gaze at her when she had it on. His face would get bright red whenever she would teasingly ask what he was staring at.

She held the sweatpants in her paws and brought them to her muzzle and inhaled, taking in his lingering sent. They were clean but the years of soaking in his sweat had permanently imprinted his scent onto them. It was a smell she had come to love so much that she would die, just for a chance to inhale the heavenly scent from the real thing.

She folded the sweatpants and tucked them carefully into her bag, along with a few of his t-shirts. She then turned to his bed and ripped the blanked off the mattress and folded it up to take with her, and decided to take his pillows as well. As she walked to the door way to leave Fox's room she turned to get one last look. Her eyes scanned the empty room and she noticed the photo album that was still on his nightstand; it called out to her, begging her to take it with her. She approached the album and picked it up, gently brushed her paw across its soft leather cover. She gave a sad sigh and placed it in her bag as she made her way out of Fox's room, never to return again.

xxxx

Krystal lay on the bed in her crummy apartment and stared at the ceiling. She turned and wrapped herself in Fox's blanket and curled into a ball as she wrapped her tail around her legs for warmth. With her face buried in his pillows she cried. "Fox… I'm so sorry."

xxxx

Sorry this chapter took so long but I am very busy with college and work so my updates might be a little few and far between. Anyway, this chapter was meant to explain the new Living arrangements of Fox and Krystal (duh) so sorry if it was a little boring and not that detailed. I also tried to add some emotion into it so please tell me what you liked and disliked and I will try to work on it.


	10. Chapter 9: Unforeseen Circumstances

**Guess whose back people. Sorry about the long wait, you guys must hate me by now. But I'm on break now so I actually have time to work on this story, and yes I plan on finishing this story so don't worry about it being discontinued.**

Chapter 9: Unforeseen Circumstances

The bedroom echoed with the annoying beep of an alarm clock until a dark red paw came smashing down on it. Fox yawned as he checked his clock; it read 9:13 am. Normally he would have gotten up much earlier, but it was the weekend so he decided to sleep in a little. He sat up on his mattress and rubbed the sleep from his eyes as he got off the bed. He stretched his muscles as he made his way to the luxurious master bathroom to perform his morning ritual of brushing his teeth, using the can, and taking a nice hot shower.

As he got out of the shower and dried himself off and made his way back into the bedroom to put on a pair of boxer shorts. He toweled off the damp fur on his head and used the corners if the damp cloth to clean his ears as he walked into the closet full of the brand new clothes he had recently purchased. He chose a simple pair of light blue jeans and a dark blue t-shirt; blue of course, was his favorite color. With the aviator sunglasses covering his eyes, he looked at himself in the full-sized mirror mounted on wall.

After all this time it still felt odd to see his self with a new fur color. All the orange parts of his fur were now a dark reddish brown color. Excluding the stripe on his head, all the white parts of his fur remained the same, which he was glad. Even though the doctor had dyed him while he was unconscious, he was relieved that he didn't touch any of the white fur that covered his muzzle and ran down his throat and chest to his crotch and a little ways down the inside of his thighs. He was glad at that fact because the thought of that creepy old ape touching his "boys" made him extremely uneasy.

Fox nodded in satisfaction of his appearance and made his way to the garage to his motorcycle. He slid the helmet over his ears and head before rocketing down the driveway to the main road. He was on his way to meet Peppy at the academy to have his special situation explained to the person teaching the instructor training class.

xxxx

At a desk in the large office of the massive Cornerian military base sat General Peppy Hare. He was quietly typing away at his terminal, filling out important documents and forms while waiting for an oddly familiar vulpine to show up.

"Excuse me sir," the secretary on the other side of the callbox said, "Isaac Fang is here."

"Ah yes," he replied. "Tell him I'll be right out."

Fox waited in lobby of the military office on a hard plastic chair. He couldn't help but notice Peppy's secretary looking him up and down in an ogling fashion. She was a young very attractive looking red furred fox. Her eyes scanned his body and she almost started to pant as she stared at his strong and well-muscled arms. She could easily tell that the rest of him was just as muscular.

The way she was gawking at him was starting to make the vulpine very uncomfortable. '_I knew I should have worn a long sleeve shirt_,' He thought to himself.

Out of the corner of his eye, when she thought he wasn't looking, he noticed her undo the top button of her blouse to reveal a nice amount of cleavage. She then got up from behind her desk and made her way over to where he was siting.

"Excuse me," she said with a flirty tone and gave him a seductive smile, "but General Hare said he will be out to meet you shortly."

His face began to turn red, "T-t-thanks." He said timidly, getting a giggle out of the red vixen.

She then turned around to make her way back to her desk but then suddenly dropped her pen. "Oops," she said, acting as innocently as she could. She slowly bent down to pick it up, lifting her tail straight into the air, giving Fox a perfect view of her well-shaped rear.

His face was now glowing bright red because of his shy nature and the secretary's attempts at seducing him. Although she was very attractive, Fox had no interest in seeking out any sort of relationship whatsoever. He had already lost the love of his life and knew he would never look at another woman the way he looked at Krystal. In Fox's mind there was no other female in the galaxy as perfect as Krystal, both in body and mind. After what he had done to her, he felt he deserved to be alone until the day he died.

"Shirley, that's enough!" The General scolded as he walked into the office lobby.

The vixen yelped in surprise. "General Hare," she said as a blush showed brightly through her already red fur. "S-sorry I was just… picking up my pen."

"Yes, well, maybe next time you should be more careful," He with an expression that said he wasn't buying it.

"Right," She said as she quickly made her way back to her desk, desperate to escape the embarrassment.

The General turned to Fox and motioned him to follow, which he quickly did. "Sorry about my secretary's behavior, she's usually not like that," Peppy said as he led Fox to his car.

"Oh that's okay. Believe it or not, but that's not the first time that something like that's happened to me," He said as he remembered the fan girls.

After he defeated Andross for the first time, all the members of Star Fox became instant celebrities. No matter where he and his team went, crowds always seemed to form around them wanting autographs and pictures. At first they liked the attention, especially Falco, who couldn't seem to get enough of it, but eventually it became annoying… very annoying. Sometimes it got so bad that they would actually be chased by crazed fans that demanded autographs. For Fox however, the fan girls were the worst, and he wasn't really sure why they were so obsessed with him. At first he thought it was because of his role as the team's leader, but he soon found out that it was because they found him insanely attractive; a fact he was to shy about to let go to his head.

xxxx

Once they both made it to the academy, Fox got out of the vehicle and followed Peppy into the east side of the academy. They walked together in an awkward silence, both of them not sure what to say to the other. Finally they made their way to the classroom that Fox assumed the instructor course would be taught in and walked in.

Sitting behind the teacher's desk was a large and very well build eagle, someone who obviously had a military history from the looks of it. The eagle stood up upon seeing Peppy and gave a perfect salute, "General Hare."

"At ease Brick, you don't have to keep giving me a formal greeting," Peppy said to the bird.

"Sorry sir, just an old habit," the eagle said. He then looked to the fox standing beside the general. He looked him up and down as if he could learn everything about the fox just by looking at him. "This him?" he asked.

"Yes. Mr. Brick allow me to introduce you to our special case, Isaac Fang. Mr. Fang this is going to be the class instructor, Mr. Brick," Peppy said.

Mr. Brick walked towards the vulpine until he was right in front of him. He was only a few inches taller than Fox, but the way he held himself made it seem like he towered over the vulpine. He held out his feathered hand for Fox to shake, it looked like it could crush anything caught in its grasp. Fox accepted the hand shake and immediately wished he hadn't. The bird's hand violently shook him up and down while keep a bone crushing grip on his paw. "So you're the one that beat the record huh? Nice to meet you, the names Griston Brick, but you can call me Mr. Brick."

Fox's face was gritted in pane as the bird continued to shake his hand until he finally let go. "Thanks," Fox replied in a high pitched voice trying to hold back the tears of pain. "You can call me Isaac."

Peppy looked to the bird "Isaac here, is going to be in your class this summer for training," he said as he looked towards the fox that was still cradling his crushed paw.

The eagle looked from Peppy to Fox, "I still don't understand how you could have possibly beaten that record," he said looking at fox in curiosity.

'_Ow ow ow, oh god is it broken! What the HELL was that, was he trying to rip my hand off, ' _Fox thought as he cradled his sore hand until he noticed the hare and eagle staring at him. "What…?"

"Not paying attention already are we?" Mr. Brick chuckled and gave Fox a slap on the back. "I can tell this is going to be a very productive summer."

'_MY SPINE!' _Fox screamed in his head; if he wasn't wearing his usual sun glasses they would have seen his eyes bulge out their sockets. It felt like someone took a wrecking ball to his spinal cord. He held his back and gave a week laugh "S-sorry just didn't catch the question, what did you say?"

The eagle gave another laugh, "I said how on Corneria did you beat that record? Do you have any idea how many students have tried to beat that record, not to mention all the times I tried."

"Yes, I am also curious," Peppy chimed in while giving Fox a suspicious look.

Fox started sweating nervously, "Oh, well… I'm just good with an Arwing I guess."

Peppy and Mr. Brick were just staring at him until the eagle cracked a smile, "Alright, alright, I get it; don't want to reveal your secrets eh?" Mr. Brick chucked and gave the fox a nudge to the side with his elbow.

'_MY KIDNEY!'_ Fox once again screamed in his head as pain ripped through his body. '_I can't tell if he's trying to be friendly or if he's trying to kill me!'_ He gave a hoarse chuckle while holding his side. "Yeah, that's it."

Mr. Brick continued to laugh at the fox's reaction of his nudge, "Sorry, guess I don't know my own strength sometimes." He then looked towards Peppy, "Alright General Hare, thanks for letting me meet him; I will make all the necessary arrangements."

"You are welcome Mr. Brick," Peppy said. "Alright Mr. Fang, let's get going."

'_Wait what? That only took like five minutes. What the heck was that all about?' _He regained his composer and followed Peppy out of the room.

"I know that wasn't very long and seemed a little unnecessary, but the truth is, I also needed your help for something else today. If you don't mind that is?" The general said as if he could read the vulpine's mind.

Fox thought about it for a sec. He honestly had nothing planned for the rest of today, and he really didn't mind out helping out one of his closest friends; even though Peppy had no idea who he really was. "Sure, I don't mind, I've got nothing else going on today."

"Great, then would you mind heading to the academy cafeteria and waiting for me there? There is something I have to do first; it shouldn't take long."

"Alright then, see you there."

And with that the two headed in separate directions. Fox went towards the south wing of the academy; after all these years he still knew the academy like the back of his hand.

xxxx

Krystal sat waiting in one of the many chairs in the lobby of the Cornerian Academy. Her tail twitched around and her ears were perked up listening for the sound of any footsteps. "Come on Peppy, I thought you said you were going to meet me here?" She whined to herself. The hare had told her to meet him here so he could give her a proper tour of the academy, but so far he hadn't shown up. '_I hope he didn't forget,' _she thought to herself.

The school was practically empty because it was the summer and all the students were on break. So she waited in the large white lobby all by herself. Suddenly she heard a door open and watched a familiar rabbit step through. "Peppy!" she called out and ran to him.

"Krystal my dear, how are you?" he said as he gave her a hug.

"I've been better, I can tell you that much." She sighed hugging him back. "So, are you going to give me a tour?" She asked, her ears twitching with excitement and her tail shifting back and forth happily.

"Yes, but first I would like to have a talk with you," he motioned her to take a seat in one of the lobby chairs she had been waiting in.

After they were both seated she asked, "Sure, what did you want to talk about?"

Peppy started to fidget around in his chair uncomfortably, "Well, Krystal… you see." He stopped and took a deep breath. "This is sad and really rather embarrassing for me to admit, but I needed to let you know before your first day of class."

She looked at him curiously, "What is it Peppy?"

Once again the rabbit took a deep breath, "Krystal, as much as it pains me to admit, this class might be a little… difficult for you."

"What? You think I won't pass?" She asked, worried that Peppy doubted her abilities.

"No no no , it's not that, in fact, I'm sure you'll pass with the highest score in the class, It's just that… well… you might have to deal with a lot of… um… sexism."

"What?" Krystal asked a little offended.

"Krystal, it's not something that is known publicly, but a lot of pilots are prejudice in the since that they think women can't and shouldn't fly," he said hoping not to piss her off too much.

"What!" she asked, the fur on her neck standing on end. "They think I can't fly, just because I'm a girl? I was part of Star Fox! I was trained by Lylat's finest himself! I can fly circles around any pilot from Corneria's army." She said fuming with rage; she was one of the best pilots in Lylat and she knew it.

"Krystal, Krystal, I know you can. Please calm down," he said to the vixen that looked like she was about to rip someone's head off. "Krystal I know you can fly, believe me I know. But that still doesn't change the fact that a lot of pilots still think girls don't belong in the air. You and a few others are an exception to their chauvinistic beliefs. That is why I need your help," He said.

"My help? Help with what?" The simmering vixen asked.

"I need you to help me show them just how wrong they are. I need you to show them that women can hold their own in the air just as good as men," Peppy said.

"Haven't I done that already! I may not have fought in the war against Andross, but I fought and helped defeat both the Aparoids and the Anglars as part of the Star Fox team. Doesn't that count for something!" She growled.

"Krystal it does, believe me it does. But… well…" Peppy tried to speak but was too afraid he would upset the vixen even further.

"Well what!" she demanded.

"Krystal," he took a long breath and regained his composer before speaking. "Ever since you… were forced off the Star Fox team… people started having doubts about you," Peppy said and quickly wish he hadn't

Krystal's ears drooped and her tail stopped swaying back and forth. "Krystal, I'm sorry I didn't mean to upset you," he said.

"No, Peppy it's okay. I know Fox had his reasons… if only I hadn't… he would-"

"Krystal stop! What he did to you was terrible, If I'd a been there I would have smacked him upside the head for even considering it. You did nothing wrong," he said hoping his words would calm her down.

Krystal sat still, her ears still down and her tail almost between her legs. She knew this was all her fault whether Peppy thought so or not. She was the only one that knew the truth of his demise, while all the others thought he was only missing. A lot of people still held hope that he was still alive; the people knew it was mandatory to declare someone officially deceased if they went missing in space and while a lot of the time pilots never came back, they still thought that someone as skilled as Fox McCloud would surely never die in space. But this wasn't the case, he was dead; she had seen it with her own eyes and it was all her fault. But she wouldn't cry, not now, she had to stay strong. For Fox's sake she would try to be happy.

"Peppy it's okay, I'm okay, let's just change the subject alright. You wanted me to help you with something," she said in a calmer more controlled voice.

Peppy gave a sad sigh; he knew she still felt guilty about everything for some reason. He could see the sadness in her eyes; apparently she blamed herself for him going missing, but he had no idea why. "Alright Krystal, like I was saying. Some people have doubts about you, they don't know the actual reason why you were forced off the team and now that you left Star Wolf, a fact that I am very glad to hear might I add, people might have mixed feelings about your piloting abilities."

"But I left Star Wolf on my own accord, how does that make me a bad pilot?" She asked.

"I know it was your choice to leave, but you have to know how easy it is for rumors to spread around. All's it takes is some jackass to say that they kicked you out or something foolish like that," he said in disappointment. The truth was that there were already rumors floating around about her and Star Wolf, some rumors were bad, and some were just disturbing. "Krystal that's why I need you to show them that you can fly; show them that women can fly just as good, if not better, than men," He chuckled at that last part.

"Alright Peppy I will try… but how exactly am I going to do it?"

"Easy enough, just try your hardest in this class. Get you instructor's license. And train the best damn pilots that Corneria has ever seen," he said with a grin.

Krystal's ears were now perked back up and her tail fidgeting excitedly. She liked what Peppy had said and she was going to try her hardest to make sure it happened. "You can count on me Peppy, you have my promise," she said. Nothing would make her happier than to pass on Fox's skills and prove those chauvinistic assholes wrong.

"Great, I know you won't let me down," he said and gave her a pat on the back. "Oh, just one more thing, I need you to be on your best behavior. No beating the snot out of any sexist hooligans that you come across, I don't want you stooping to their level. You will just end up causing more harm to yourself ."

"Aww, but Peppy-"

"No buts young lady, if you want to beat them then you'll just have to do it in the air," he said in a fatherly tone. During her time with him on the Great Fox, Peppy had become like a father figure, someone she looked up to for guidance. Just like Fox, she had lost her family and Peppy was always there to help her through troubled times, just like he did with Fox.

"Alright fine, no senseless bludgeoning," she wined. "But if we are in the air you can bet your tail I'll destroy them."

"Oh that's fine, a little humiliation will do them some good," he chuckled. He got up from the lobby chair and stretched a little. "All right Krystal, if you wouldn't mind following me I will take you to your tour guide."

She got up and started following him through the school. "My tour guide? I thought _you_ were going to show me around Peppy."

"I know and I'm sorry, but Krystal I'm a general now, I am a very busy rabbit and I've got important work that needs to be done," He explained. "Don't worry, your tour guide knows this academy like the back of his hand, he is also going to be in your class; the last one to sign up as a matter of fact."

"Oh alright fine," she grumbled as she followed him out of the doors into a large courtyard. "Wait… Peppy I though you said I was the last one to sign up," she said a little confused.

They continued on the concrete path through the courtyard. "Well you were supposed to be but some things happened and now he will be in the class as well."

"What kind of things?" she asked curiously.

"To be honest, I made a bet that I thought I couldn't lose and I lost?" he said while rubbing his ears a little in embarrassment.

Krystal gave a small gasp, "What? Peppy, I never thought of you as the gambling type," she said in surprise.

They continued towards the path that led to the south wing of the academy which housed the cafeteria. "Like I said, I thought I couldn't lose, I never would have made the bet had I known what he was capable of," he said.

"What was the bet? If you don't mind me asking?" She asked.

"No it's quite all right. He bet me that if he could beat the academy flight record that I would have to let him join the instructor training class," he explained as they approached the doors to the south wing.

Krystal stopped in her tracks and stared at Peppy with disbelief. "What! Peppy are you serious? The same record that Fox's dad set all those years ago? The one that not even Fox could beat?" She stopped to gather her thoughts at the impossibility that someone had actually beaten the flight record that not even Fox had beaten. Fox even made her take the flight course when he was teaching her to fly; she did well but didn't even come close to beating the record.

She stopped for a moment to gather her thoughts, "Oh wait, I get it. He didn't beat it, but he did so well that you decided to let him join the class anyways right?" she said once she thought she understood what he was saying.

"No he beat it," Peppy said as if it were no big deal. They were still standing at the south wing entrance.

"What! How! Who could have?" she was completely dumbfounded.

"I don't know how, why don't you ask him yourself," he laughed. "He _is_ the one that's going to be giving you your tour after all." He said as he walked through the entrance into the south wing. Krystal followed him and remained quiet. She couldn't comprehend that someone had actually beaten James McCloud's record, something that Fox couldn't even do. While she didn't know who this mystery person was, she did know that already she didn't like him.

xxxx

Fox sat waiting in the large cafeteria at one of the many round tables that were scattered around the room. His leg was bouncing up and down with anticipation, '_Wonder what Peppy needs help with?_' he thought to himself . His ears twitched when he heard a pair doors open. He turned around and froze. His blood ran cold and he felt the color drain from his face as his eyes widened in horror. There, standing next to Peppy, was her, the angel in his nightmares… Krystal.

**Wow look what I just did, I make you wait forever and then end on a cliff hanger. You guys must really hate me now lol. Wonder what's going to happen next? Please read and review, it keeps me going :D**


	11. Chapter 10: Unacquainted Reunion

Chapter 10: Unacquainted Reunion.

Krystal and Peppy saw the vulpine as they entered the empty academy cafeteria and started walking towards him. He started to panic and began to quickly pat himself down until he found it. '_Oh thank the gods for my paranoia,_' he thought as he pulled out a little black box and looked it over to make sure the green light was on. He quickly slid it back in into his pocket and looked back up at the pair approaching him. '_OH SHIT, OH SHIT, OH SHIT, what the hell is she doing here! Oh gods, does she know! No she couldn't know… not unless… Falco you bastard!' _he thought, cursing the bird.

As Krystal and Peppy came closer to the vulpine, Krystal noticed that the dark red fox looked more than a little nervous, but she wasn't quite sure because of the aviator sunglasses he was wearing; something she thought to be a little odd seeing as he was indoors.

The two had made their way to the vulpine and were now standing before him. Fox was stiff as a board - petrified by fear. Before an awkward silence could come over the group Peppy spoke up.

"Mr. Fang, allow me to introduce you to my close friend Krystal," The general said as he looked from Fox to Krystal. "Krystal, this is Isaac Fang."

Seeing as how the vulpine was standing motionless she decided to be the one to start the greeting. She held out her paw for him to shake and said, "Hello, I'm Krystal, It's nice to meet you Isaac." She didn't like him, but that didn't mean she was going to be rude.

'_Wait, she doesn't know it's me. Oh dear gods thank you,_' his mind sighed in relief. '_But wait, then what the hell is she doing here?' _he thought as he extended his paw out to shake hers. "H-hello," he said nervously and relaxed a little.

Even though his mind was riddled with terror, he couldn't help notice how soft her hands were, _'They're so soft,' _he thought as he gazed into her beautiful eyes; they looked almost sad for some reason. She was still just as beautiful as the day he met her. Now though, her hair was a little longer and she no longer wore her tiara, but that didn't have any effect on her beauty.

Peppy took notice of the vulpine's reactions and made a mental note to himself, "Mr. Fang, if you wouldn't mind helping me out, I would like you to show Krystal here around the academy," He asked. "I would do it myself but I am very busy you know."

Fox cocked an eyebrow behind his sunglasses, "Uh… sure, I guess," he said with uneasiness still evident in his voice. "But can I ask why?" If she wasn't here to kill him then what the hell was she doing here he wondered.

Krystal almost couldn't comprehend what she had heard, it wasn't what he said, but it was his voice that caught her attention. '_H-he… he sounds just like Fox_,' she thought with a small gasp. Now that she thought about it, he looked almost exactly _like _Fox; at least she thought he did. She couldn't quite tell because of the large aviators he was wearing on his face; they surprisingly covered up a lot of facial features. His fur color also wasn't the same as Fox's. The vulpine before her had dark red fur, and while his muzzle was white, just like Fox's, this fox didn't have a white strip on his head. There was also something a bit off about him, something she couldn't quite put her finger on.

The hare cleared his throat, "Because Krystal doesn't know her way around the school yet, and I would like her to know her way around before the instructor training class starts. She will be in your class you know,"

Fox once again froze, he couldn't believe what Peppy had just said. His world came crashing down around him, this couldn't be happening. He had planned everything so carefully; he couldn't understand it, his mind refused to believe what it just heard. "Wha-WHAT!" he shouted unable to control his voice. She wasn't supposed to be here, she was supposed to be with Star Wolf, and regrettably, with Panther as well.

Krystal was broken from her examination of the familiar fox. Her fur was on end with rage after hearing the vulpine's reaction to the news that she would be in his class; this must have been one of the sexist bastards that Peppy was talking about.

No matter how much air Fox took in, he still felt like he was suffocating. It felt like a thousand pound weight was pushing on his chest. "What about Star Wolf? What about Panth-" He tried to say but was cut off by an enraged vixen.

"THAT'S NONE OF YOUR BUISNES!" The vixen yelled, now fuming with anger. Whoever this guy was she _really_ didn't like him now.

Fox quickly covered his muzzle after realizing he almost blew his cover. But yet a million questions still ran through his mind. '_Why is she here? Why is she taking this class? Why isn't she with Star Wolf? Did she leave? Did they kick her out? Did they hurt her? If they did I'll kill them all. Maybe they didn't. Maybe she's still with them. But then why is she here?'_

The questions raged in his mind like a hurricane until he noticed a seething mad vixen looking at him like he was in dire need of a decapitation. "S-Sorry I didn't mean to upset you… it's just that…" he said quickly trying to come up with something to cover his tail. "It's just you don't meet someone from the famous Star Wolf mercenary team every day, let alone hear that one of their members is going to be in the same class with you," he said proud of his smooth recovery.

Krystal seemed to calm down a bit after hearing that. He did have a point, she remembered how crazed fans would harass and chase the Star Fox team around and ever since Star Wolf gave up its bad rep; they also gathered some fame after helping with the Anglar Blitz. He was probably shocked to see someone famous. She couldn't help but feel a bit sad though; sad at the fact that he said Star Wolf and not Star Fox. But whose fault was that? Sure Fox forced her off the team, but that didn't mean she had to join up with Star Wolf, Fox's rivals. She could feel the guilt creeping back into her mind so she quickly stopped thinking about it.

"Yeah well… I'm sorry too. I shouldn't have snapped at you like that," she said now a little embarrassed at her outburst, apparently the fox had no idea that she wasn't part of Star Wolf anymore; it's not like it was public news after all.

"Well thank goodness that's all settled," the old hare chuckled. "For a second there, I thought I was going to have to call Mr. Fang an ambulance." He then turned to Fox, "Now if you wouldn't mind, will you show Krystal around the academy grounds?"

Fox gave a sigh of relief after seeing her calm down. He knew what she was capable of and glad he hadn't pissed her of too much. He didn't feel like breathing out of a tube for the rest of his life. "Y-yeah sure," he said.

"Thank you. Now if you'll excuse me I must be on my way," He said and then headed for the exit. "Oh, and Krystal, remember what I said earlier and stay out of trouble."

"Don't worry Peppy I will," she laughed at the old hare's fatherly attitude. Peppy returned a smile and left through the exit. She then turned her attention the fox that was to give her a tour of the school. She noticed he had a look on his face as if he had seen a ghost, but again, she wasn't sure because of the glasses he wore. Maybe he was still in celebrity shock; if so, she wished he wasn't. She never really liked being famous, and now it only made her feel worse; it was just another guilty reminder of what she did to Fox.

A silence fell between the two until Krystal final spoke up, "Well? Aren't you going to give me a tour?" she asked with a tone that said she was still a little peeved.

Her voice scared the shit out of him; it was only more proof that the unbelievable was happening. '_What the fuck, what the fuck, what the FUCK,' _"Oh, yeah… well uh, this is the cafeteria, it's where students come to eat…" he said and continued to give her a tour of the rest of the school.

He first showed her around the south wing, which was the wing they were currently in, making sure to explain the different departments. He showed her the auditorium and explained that it was where the academy pep assemblies took place and some other school functions. Then he continued his tour of the east and west wings, explaining that they consisted of class rooms and flight simulators, making sure to show her the room that their instructor training course was going to be held in, and glad that Mr. Brick wasn't in the room. He then showed her around the north wing, which was used for athletic training. He also made sure to show her the school's hangars and launch pads. All the while the questions still raged in his mind unanswered. She wasn't really talking to him, only listening to him as he gave the tour. To end the tour, he headed back towards the cafeteria.

Throughout the entire tour, Krystal still couldn't believe how much the vulpine sounded like Fox, the similarity was uncanny. She still didn't like him because of his earlier outburst, but it wasn't something she would hold against him, and she honestly didn't know him at all so there was really no room to judge him so quickly. Still though, she couldn't get over his voice.

While they were making their way back to the cafeteria she could hold her tongue anymore, she had to say something.

"Has anyone ever told you that you sound just like-"

"Fox McCloud?" Fox said quickly as if he knew she was going to ask.

"Ye-Yeah… how did you know I was going to say that?" she asked, a little startled that he knew what she was going to say.

Fox was tempted to freak her out by saying that he could read minds, but was still a little too afraid that might only arouse more suspicion. Instead he said, "You're not the first to say that, and your probably not going to be the last." He said with a sigh as if it was something people said to him on a usual basis. He felt bad for tricking her but the Doc said that it must be done to throw anyone that new him previously as Fox McCloud off his tail in order to maintain his cover. He had to plant the seeds of deception.

"In fact," he continued, "A lot of people have even said that I look like him. A few people have even asked me for his autograph, mistakenly thinking I was him. But I honestly don't see the resemblance between me and him." He said with a forced laugh.

"Wow really?" Krystal said with surprise. "Well maybe you don't look completely like him, but you sure do sound like him."

Fox started to chuckle nervously and rubbed the back of his head. "Yeah, funny how that is."

'_Wow, even his mannerisms are similar to Fox's,' _she thought, growing ever more curious about the fox before her. _'Just who exactly is this guy?' _His voice reminded her so much of Fox. While it was a little weird, it was also a little nice to be able to hear his voice again, even though it wasn't actually him. But there was still something off about him, something that made her really uncomfortable. Her fur stood on end when she realized what it was; he wasn't giving of any emotion at all.

She didn't understand how that was possible. Sensing someone's emotion was something that she did naturally, it was almost like breathing to her. Reading someone's mind however, took some actual focus to do. Yet here was this strange vulpine who sounded exactly like Fox and gave off no emotion at all; it was like he was completely devoid of any feelings whatsoever. She then focused her mind on his mind to see if she could read his thoughts as well, but was shocked when all she got was nothing, just complete and utter emptiness. It was so startling it sent a chill down her spine and tail. It was the same feeling she got the day Fox… died. She remembered how she couldn't sense any of Fox's thoughts or emotion that day. She suddenly had the urge to cry again but hastily held it back.

Fox new exactly what she was doing. He had been around her long enough to tell when she was reading someone's mind, or in his case, trying to. "Uh, are you okay?" he asked to help further his façade of cluelessness.

"Ye- yes I'm fine, I just have a small headache is all. The tour was a lot take in," she lied and received a chuckle from the vulpine, something that sent more chills down her spine. _'He even laughs like Fox too.'_

Fox knew it was a lie. Something as simple as the tour he gave wasn't going to give her a headache. She was the most intelligent person he had ever met and knew that she could probably already find her way around the academy just as well as he could.

They had finally made their way to cafeteria where the tour had started, "Alright, and here we are beck at the cafeteria."

An awkward silence descended upon the two as neither one of them had anything to say or talk about. Krystal was too wrapped up wondering why she couldn't pick up any emotion or thought from the vulpine before her. Fox's mind continued to ask itself question after question, he didn't understand why she was here and why she wanted to become a flight instructor of all things. He had to know, had to get her to talk about it.

"Um, again, sorry about earlier, I know that probably wasn't the best first impression," he said nervously. "I just never thought someone from Star Wolf would be in my class is all. I mean, I'm just not really sure why someone from Star Wolf would want to be in a flight instructor training class. I'm sure you guys make a killing in the merc business" He said, pushing the Star Wolf subject in hopes of getting her to talk about it.

Every time he said Star Wolf she felt a little worse inside until finally she couldn't take it and let out a sad sigh. "I am no longer a part of Star Wolf and before you jump to conclusions, I left Star Wolf, they didn't force me out." She said, remembering what Peppy said about how easy it was for rumors to start and whatnot.

"They didn't hurt you did they," he blurted out letting his protective nature get the best of him, the same nature that ruined his life.

Krystal couldn't help but notice the worry in his voice and how similar it was to something Fox would have said. She also wondered why this strange… stranger would care, it's not like he knew her; they had just met today. "Uh… no, they didn't hurt me. Not that they could," she added with a small laugh remembering Panthers feeble attacks.

"Oh, so then, uh… why did you leave? If you don't mind me asking that is." He asked hoping to get an answer that would calm his mind.

Krystal gave a deep sigh before answering. "Well if you must know, I wasn't happy there," she said and began playing with her necklace while looking at the floor in thought. "Someone… someone very important to me said that he wanted me to be happy," she said holding back the tears as she once again remembered that awful day. "It wasn't until that person had… left… that I realized I wasn't happy with Star Wolf, so I decided to leave."

The vulpine stood motionless, as if he was fighting back his own tears, and glad his sunglasses hid it. His whole world was now upside down. One of his questions was answered but it wasn't what he expected at all.

'_S-Someone…im-important to you,' _his mind was so distressed that he stuttered in his thoughts. _'No… no… NO, NO, NO! This can't be right, that can't be true. I'm not important to you, I am nothing to you, I can't be. You shouldn't be here. I thought you were happy with Star Wolf, with Panth-'_ he tried to think but suddenly his mind went numb as a surging pain shot through his body. It was so intense that he couldn't breathe and it forced him to collapse to his hands and knees. It felt like the same pain from the day he faked his death, only this time… it was worse.

"Oh my god, Isaac are you okay!" she asked when she saw the vulpine suddenly collapse to the ground and clutch is chest. She could hear him gasping for air as if he had gotten the wind knocked out of him.

Before she could go for help the pain subsided and he got up on his knees. "Yeah… I'm fine… don't… don't worry about it… just need to sit down," he said between breaths.

Krystal helped him up and over to one of the cafeteria tables so he could sit. She waited till he caught his breathe before saying something. "Isaac what happened? Are you sure you're okay?" she asked worriedly.

"Yeah I'm fine," he said again after he caught his breath. "Just lost my breath for a second there, but I'm fine now, nothing to worry about." He said lying through his teeth. Fox honestly had no clue what that pain was.

Krystal still wasn't convinced, one minute they were talking and the next he is on the ground gasping for air. She looked him up and down, looking for any signs of sickness, but there was nothing; in fact, he looked to be in great physical health judging from his muscular physique. "So you're sure you're alright?" she asked once more.

"Yes," he chuckled, "Krystal, I'm fine."

The fur on the back of the vixen's neck was on end after he said her name. That was the first time he had said her name and the way he said it reminded her so much of the vulpine she missed desperately every day. But it wasn't Fox, and she had to get over the fact that Isaac sounded like him if she was ever going to move on and be happy.

"So, um, as you were saying, you weren't happy with Star Wolf right? What made you want to become a teacher?" he asked with his mind once again filled with questions and trying to get off the subject of his sudden collapse.

The vulpine before her was very strange indeed; she didn't understand why a complete stranger would want to know so much about her. Normally, if a male was interested in her and was asking her questions it was because he was most likely trying to seduce her and make her drop her guard to try to get her to sleep with him, something she would never ever do. She didn't have to read their thoughts to know what they were after, it was usually written all over their faces. But this fox was… different; she could tell he wasn't interested in that sort of thing, he was just unusually and honestly curious about her. Again she thought it could be because of her unwanted fame, but wasn't sure.

"Well, I'm a good pilot and I don't want to be doing mercenary work anymore. So I figure I would teach piloting," she said leaving out the part about how she felt she owed it to Fox to pass on his skills.

'_Bullshit, there has got to be more to it than that. That can't be all,', _"Oh, well that makes sense," he said. "I've heard of some of the stuff you did during the Aparoid Invasion and from what I've heard, your one hell of a pilot."

'_Alright, maybe he isn't one of the sexists Peppy was talking about… but he's still so… unusual,'_ she thought. "Thanks, oh and speaking of piloting skills, I heard you beat the flight record," she said, realizing that after all this time she still hadn't asked him about it. "So do you mind telling me how you did it?" she asked wondering how he could have beaten the unbeatable record.

"Very carefully," he said jokingly getting a small laugh out the vixen; her laugh was heaven to his ears. After all he had done to get away from her, all he had done to get his mind off her; he was still madly in love with her.

"No seriously," she giggled, "how did you do it?"

"Uh, well believe it or not but I am a pretty good pilot, actually I'm damn near one of the best you will ever meet" he said with a cocky smirk. "It's not really something I can explain though, so… uh, sorry." He said a little tensely not wanting to give her too much information on him.

Krystal was now at a loss for words. Yet again and again and again this strange vulpine continued to exhibit similarity after similarity of the one and only Fox McCloud. "Uh, Okay…" her voice trailed as she stared deeply at him. For a second the image of the fox she would die to see one last time appeared before her.

The hair on Fox's neck and back was now on end with nervousness, _'Oh crap, what is she staring at,'_ he wondered. "… uh, you okay?"

The Cerinian vixen rubbed her eyes of the vision as she was broken from her reverie. "Yeah, you just…never mind," she sighed. "Anyway, you might be good at beating records but don't let that go to your head. I knew the best pilot in all of Lylat personally, and I have yet to meet another one better than him," she said trying to get his ego to speak up so she could further understand this mysterious person. "Besides, if you're as good as you say you are then how come I've never heard of you?" she said in a playful and curious way as to not offend him.

'_She thinks I'm the best pilot in all of Lylat? Wow, talk about ecstasy for my ego.'_ He looked at her and couldn't help but grin. It amused him that she was talking about how great of a pilot Fox McCloud was, and she didn't know that she was talking to Fox McCloud, but then he grew disgusted with himself for enjoying the fact that he was tricking her. "You're talking about Fox McCloud aren't you?" he said feeling a little weird saying his own name.

She nodded her head, "I am," she said, her ears and tail slightly drooping.

'_Why does she look so sad all of a sudden…? Is… is it because of me? No… no it can't be. But she said I was important to her just a few minutes ago… but I can't be, I just can't. She said she didn't care, she said she moved on. Why… WHY IS THIS HAPPENING?'_ his mind was in a frenzy of turmoil as it tumbled and toiled with question after question, trying desperately to put the pieces together to find the answers. All the while his outer expressions didn't falter in the slightest. His façade was flawless; he hid his feelings, his distress, all of his thoughts behind a wall of lies, lies that bound him in an everlasting nightmare. A nightmare he felt he deserved to suffer through after all the pain he had caused the beautiful blue vixen.

"Yep, that's probably another reason people get me and him confused. It doesn't help that we're both pilots." He chuckled and continued. "Well… you've probably never herd of me because I was never part of a big team and I never fought in any wars. Nope, I just stuck to myself and did a few small jobs as a merc here and there."

"You were a mercenary?" she said astonished.

He looked at her and laughed, "You know, there are other mercenaries out there besides Star Fox and Star Wolf. Yeah I was a merc, but I stuck mostly to jobs outside the system, so that's probably why you've never heard of me, well that and like I said before; not all mercenaries are as famous as Star Wolf or Star Fox."

"Well it's no wonder that people get… or used to get you two confused," she said sadly and once again looked at the ground in guilt. "Did, uh… did you ever meet him, Fox I mean. Have you ever met Fox McCloud?" she knew it was a long shot but her curiosity got the best of her.

The dark colored vulpine tensed up a little as he wasn't sure what to say. "Uh, well I have run into Star Fox before," he said figuring it would help throw suspicion off him if she could picture both him and Fox McCloud in the same place. If that happened then her mind would establish the fact that Fox and Isaac were two real and different people, even though in truth they were one and the same.

"And?" she said as the hairs on her neck stood up. "You weren't fighting them were you?" she said almost in a growl. If he had ever fought Star Fox then she knew that she was going to have issues with him.

"Uh… no" he said in a way that sounded like he was guessing. Suddenly a though crossed his mind and grew confused. "Why would you care anyways? Didn't you join up with Star Fox's rivals," only as the word left his mouth did he realize the horror he had said.

The vixen's ears were at an all-time low as her tail lifelessly drooped to the floor. It was obvious that she was fighting back tears. The image of the miserable vixen brought Fox to a record low; her sad form was starting to make him tear up. One of the biggest reasons he faked his death was to let Krystal know that he would never be around to hurt her ever again, and now he had done just that, he hurt her. The guilt and self-hatred ravaged his mind. His skin started crawling as feelings of disgust and rottenness ate away at him.

Krystal managed to hold back the tears as the guilt washed over her once more. She felt so stupid for almost growling at Isaac. He was right, why should she care if he had fought against Star Fox. The real villain of the Star Fox team was her; she joined their biggest rivals, because of her, the team's captain and close friend was dead. Because of her, Lylat's greatest hero was gone. Because of her, the life of the sweet and caring Fox McCloud was over. She thought, as she continued to hold back the tears for the umpteenth time today.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to upset you," he said quickly. "Please don't be sad."

Isaac's words and voice reminded her of Fox's final wishes for her and helped her get ahold of herself. _'Damn it, I have to stop doing that… for Fox,'_ she mentally scolded herself. "I'm sorry; I shouldn't have been so hostel with you." She apologized.

"No, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that. I have no idea where that came from." He said, also apologizing. The dark colored vulpine's muscles tensed up as his throat ran dry for what he was about to say next. "… do… do you miss him?"

Krystal let out a long sad sigh as she thought about the question and once again looked towards the ground remembering the fox she loved so very much. "Every second of every day."

Fox's mind exploded with guilt and misery. His nightmare had just turned into hell. Now he could fully see the pain he had caused the sweet innocent vixen; pain he swore he would never bring to her again. She didn't deserve this; she didn't deserve any pain or suffering whatsoever. She deserved to live happily for the rest of her life, but now, that wasn't going to happen, and it was all his fault. He had ruined her life and made her suffer because of his selfishness and stupidity.

The blue vixen once again let out another sigh, "Alright, I think I'm going to get going now," she said, not really wanting to go back to that crummy apartment she now lived in, but she could feel her emotions welling up and was worried about breaking down if she continued to talk to the strange vulpine that reminded her of Fox. "Thanks for the tour."

"All right… I, uh, guess I will see you when class starts," he said, hiding his tearing agony filled eyes behind his dark sunglasses.

They both parted ways and left the school through different exits. Fox arrived at the parking lot, hopped on his motorcycle and quickly made his way to his empty and lonely house. The entire way there his mind filled its self with guilt, regret, and self-hatred, as the image of the pain filled vixen repeatedly entered his thoughts.

xxxx

After he arrived at his house he parked the bike in the garage and threw his helmet at the wall. The image of Krystal continued to replay over and over again in his mind, the image of her sad depressed pain filled eyes were burned into his skull.

He still didn't understand why she was hurting so bad, he just knew she was hurting and there was only himself to blame. He saw the way she looked when she said she how much she missed him. Fox had no idea that she believed it was her fault that he was dead, he had no idea of the guilt and pain she felt. The only thing Fox knew from talking to her was that she was sad because she though he was dead.

Fox made his way to his room and sat on his bead. He threw his glasses on the bed and put his palms over his eyes as the tears made their way down his muzzle. He was so confused. The questions were still running through his mind nonstop. "I thought you didn't care. You told me you didn't care. If I would have known, I never…" he whined into the air. Then he remembered the appalling trick he played before her, he remembered that not only did he fake his death, he did so front of her.

His blood began to boil with the realization of his own stupidity. _'She cared, she cared the entire time… and I… I killed myself in front of her… oh, oh gods what have I done. I'm… I'm a monster'_ He clenched his fist in anger knowing that after seeing him fall, after watching him die, the poor innocent vixen must have been beyond heartbroken. After seeing her fight back the tears today, he knew that she must have been crying after he died.

He slammed his head against the wall of his room, putting a dent in the drywall. He then gave the wall another hit with his fist, putting a solid hole in the wall. He knew he deserved pain and suffering after hurting her and it felt good to hurt his self.

The image of the crying vixen appeared in his mind, he imagined her heartbroken form weeping on the floor of her room, mourning his death. "Krystal… I'm sorry," he cried as he dropped to his knees. "I'm so sorry."

He wanted to tell her, revile himself to her, to let her know that he was alive and fine to make her pain go away, but he knew he couldn't. The pain she was feeling now would be nothing in comparison to the pain she would feel if she knew of his monstrous actions. _'No, no I've come too far, I made my decisions and now I will have to live with the consequences.'_ He thought as eyes burned with tears. He had no choice, he had to continue with his plan, he had to become a teacher, even if that meant training alongside the innocent blue vixen he had cause so much pain. If she ever found out the truth he would never be able to live with himself. If it ever happened he… he would kill himself for real.

Fox lay uncomfortably on the floor, letting the tears slowly drip from his muzzle until he finally fell asleep from the emotional exhaustion.

xxxx

**Talk about depressing. Sorry about the huge cliffhanger and the long wait, but writing this chapter was really hard. It's so difficult to try to describe the pain that Fox and Krystal are going through, but hopefully I did a good job. But that all depends on your opinions now doesn't it :3 Please tell me what you thought. Oh and if some of you are still having trouble picturing what Fox now looks like, picture Fox McCloud, take all his orange fur and imagine it a dark reddish brown. Then remove the white stripe of fur on his head, and throw a pair of large aviator sunglasses on his face to cover his now brown eyes. That is what Fox/Isaac looks like.**


	12. Chapter 11: First Day

**Hey, I'm back again. Once again sorry about the long wait, I am very busy procrastinating and playing video games. Oh, and I also have a job and school so, that doesn't help either. Anyway, here's the next chapter hope you enjoy. :P **

Chapter 11: First Day

The mirror on wall of the steam filled bathroom reflected a pair of empty voids that could only be described as the eyes of Fox McCloud. They were cold, lifeless, and riddled with the guilt and agony of a vulpine who wanted to noting more than to end the pain. His eyes were the only cracks in his otherwise flawless mask of deception. The fox growled, hating both the eyes and the figure staring back at him, knowing there was nothing he could do that would ever make up for or change what he did. Closing his eyes with a sigh, he turned away and walked his damp body the bedroom to get dressed.

It had been about a week since he learned what he though was the truth that his actions had on the innocent blue vixen, Krystal. He didn't know that the Cerinian fox blamed herself for his death, nor did he know of the guilt that pained her because of it. He only knew part of the truth, which was that she was hurting because he was gone, but that was all it took to make him regret everything. Nevertheless, he had come too far to quit and was dead set on living with the consequences of his foolish actions. His actions were unforgivable, but the pain Krystal felt now would be nothing in comparison to the pain she would feel if she learned the truth, or so he believed. He would go through with his plan to become a flight instructor, and today was the first day that would lead him to his would-be career; today was the first day of class.

The now dry and clothed vulpine walked into his bedroom to fetch his sunglasses. As he picked them up from the nightstand beside his bed he took notice of the time on the alarm clock; it read 8:46 a.m.

"Aw shit, I'm gona be late!" he shouted to no one as he sprinted towards the garage. He jumped on his motorcycle and rocketed towards the academy. He could only imagine how pissed Mr. Brick was going to be.

As fast as the bike was, it felt like an eternity before he finally made it to the school. He took off his helmet and left it on the handle bars, too worried about being late to properly fasten it to the bike. As he sprinted to class he noticed the time on the one of the clocks that hung on the school walls; it read 9:02. "Crap!" he said as he sprinted down the empty hall towards his classroom.

The classroom door shot open and bashed against the adjacent wall making loud boom that caused the entire class jump in surprise, all except a very calm Mr. Brick.

"Ah, so glad you could make it Mr. Fang, I was just about to take attendance," the eagle said in an eerily calm fashion. "Please take a seat so we can start the class"

Fox was flush with embarrassment. He could hear the other people in the class chuckle at him as he looked for a seat. He noticed that the only seats available were the ones surrounding a familiar blue vixen, the only female in the class.

'_What, are we in elementary school? Do girls have cooties now?'_ he thought as he walked towards the desk next to her. He knew of the discrimination of women pilots and why no one wanted to sit around her. Not that he wanted to sit next to her either but that was because of entirely different reasons. If this were any other place like a bar or nightclub she would have had to beat them off with a stick.

He sat down nervously beside her and tuned to face Mr. Brick who had been staring at him the entire time. The staring continued for a few seconds until Brick said, "You all settled in nice and comfy? Good… that's good," he continued as he approached Fox's desk and leaned down to get eye level with him. "Because the next time you're late to this class Mr. Fang, you can consider yourself expelled from this class. Do we have an understanding?" he said in a calm but serious tone.

Fox gulped and slowly nodded his head up and down. Something about the bird was extremely intimidating, maybe it was because the eagle was his only hope of getting an instructors license, or maybe it was because he looked like he could crush a skull with his hand; either way, the bird was frightening. He could hear the other students chuckling at him once again; it felt like he was in high school all over again.

"That goes for all of you," he said as he managed to simultaneously glare at every student. The class immediately went dead silent and the teacher made his way back to the front of the classroom.

"All right, first things first, I am your teacher, Mr. Brick," he said as he pointed to the whiteboard with his name written on it. "You are all here to take this class and obtain you license to become a flight instructor. Whether that means you want to teach privately or publicly is up to you. But, in order to teach how to fly, you have to know how to fly, so everyone get up and follow me."

Everyone got up and followed the eagle out of the classroom and towards one of the simulator rooms. The room was filled with a few rows of flight simulator pods, enough for about 30 people.

"Let's start today off with something simple," he said as he walked to the main desk with the simulator monitoring computer on it. "I am going to test how well you can fly and fight by having you all fight in a free for all. This will be recorded so I can analyze your performance to better understand you all," Brick could hear the silent cheers and saw the cocky smirks of the pilots who thought they were going to kick everyone else's tail. "I assume you all know how the simulators work so everyone pick a pod and start it up,"

The class did as they were told and just like in the class room, nobody picked a pod next to Krystal. The childish discrimination towards her was really starting to tick Fox off but he noticed that she really seemed to care less about it. He shrugged and took the only pod left, which was of course, next to hers. Once inside he flicked on the power and the inside came to life, the controls were that of a regulation Cornerian fighter. Suddenly the canopy of the pod lit up and a holographic launch pad appeared. The fake world outside his canopy was, from what he could tell, nothing but open sky, a launch pad, and large fields of grass and trees. Fox also took notice that he was the only aircraft on the launch pad, which made sense seeing as it was a free for all and you wouldn't want to start off next to the enemy. In front of him appeared a prompt, asking him to enter his name. He almost entered "Fox", but quickly corrected himself and entered "Isaac". Even after all this time he was still getting used to his entering his new name. After he entered his name, a small green light in the dashboard came on, indicating that his pod was ready. On the screen was a list of pod numbers that had yet to be ready; one by one they disappeared until all the pods were ready for action.

Fox's ears twitched as the speakers on the interior of the pods crackled as Mr. Brick turned it on and said, "This is your standard free for all, the objective is to shoot down everyone else, the last one standing wins… have fun," he chuckled before turning of the com.

Fox felt the pod rumble to life like that of an actual aircraft starting up. He quickly hit the throttle and blasted into the sky. Immediately the sky was lit up with the laser fire of enemy fighters that were trying their best to shoot down everyone else. Fox had to keep in mind that these were not Arwings he was flying and made sure to account for the poor maneuverability and speed that his current fighter had. Enemy aircraft flew every which way and Fox was only too happy to join in on the action. His first target was a fighter that had just shot down another aircraft. He quickly locked on to it and unleashed a hailstorm of laser fire, turning it into a beautifully simulated ball of fire. Before he could celebrate his first kill he noticed an enemy already on his tail, trying to pull the same maneuver that he just did. Fox quickly banked to the right and then half barrel-rolled so his fighter was sideways in the air and made a tight turn in the other direction to the left; snaking through the air and barely dodging the lasers from the enemy that was trying to stay on his tail. Unfortunately for the enemy, Fox's turn was too fast and tight for the enemy to properly account for and ended up making a wider bank, causing him to fly ahead of Fox.

Now was Fox's chance, while the enemy was making a wide turn, Fox rolled his fighter in the opposite direction and made another tight turn, this time to the right, towards the enemy that had passed him. While banking through the air, Fox unleashed another hail-fire of lasers, hitting all along the side of the enemy aircraft and blowing it to pieces.

Fox continued to fly through the simulated air, blowing enemy after enemy out of the sky as well as dodging a fair share of lasers. He looked down at his console that told him his kill count and how many other fighters were left in the sky. He had ten kills and only two pilots remained. Suddenly that number flashed to one and Fox couldn't help but chuckle. He knew who the last pilot was; these chumps were no match for Krystal's skill. Fox looked out of his canopy and kept a steady eye on his sensors, making sure she didn't get the jump on him. He rolled his fighter so that it was now flying upside down. The simulated gravity of the pod made him actually feel like he was hanging upside-down, but now he could see the ground. Just as he suspected, he saw the enemy aircraft flying as low to the tree line as possible trying to stay hidden, one of the tactics that Fox knew Krystal used often. She liked to do sneak attacks whenever possible and take out enemy fighters before they even knew what hit them. Unfortunately for her, Fox knew her tactics and could predict her movements. He also suspected that she was feeling overconfident because all the other pilots were pushovers and she would probably think he was one too; giving Fox the element of surprise.

Fox rolled his fighter again so that he was now upside right and flew straight for her, something he knew she wouldn't expect. Her fighter was far away enough that the chances of hitting her were low; he knew this yet still lined her up in his crosshairs and fired a few bursts of laser at her. While the element of surprise was nice and all, he wanted to have some fun; it had been a long time since he had a real challenge. Besides, this was just simulated combat, if he were in a real dog fight he wouldn't dare pull such a reckless maneuver.

He saw her quickly dodge the lasers and break off her path near the tree line. Knowing that her location had been compromised, Krystal hastily took to higher altitude and flew towards the enemy fighter, rolling and releasing a barrage of laser upon the enemy that was also firing upon her. Both fighters dodged the laser fire and broke of their attack before almost crashing into one another. Fox made a wide right turn as Krystal made a sharp left turn until she had completely circled her position and caught up with Fox, still in his wide turn. She lined her ship's crosshairs slightly in front of the enemy aircraft and fired, but just as she shot the aircraft rolled in the opposite direction making an incredibly well timed turn. Fox saw laser fire flash by his canopy; had he continued on his path it would have been a direct hit.

"Hold still you slippery little…" Krystal muttered to herself as she fired as many lasers as she could; only to have the enemy dodge every shot. It was like the enemy could predict her every movement.

Fox continued to snake and roll through the air, doing his best to read the Krystal's maneuvers and dodge her attacks. She was right on his tail following his every move; he was only just barely able to dodge the lasers. Waiting for the right moment, he faked to the left but then made a wide bank to the right. The maneuver didn't faze her and she was closer to his tail than ever, just as Fox had anticipated. Before she could fire, he quickly flipped his ship upside down and pulled up on the controls, causing the fighter to do a very tight downward loop. Krystal's fingers were only a heartbeat away from firing when he pulled the maneuver. She was so close to firing and the maneuver happened so fast that it caught her off guard, but only for a second. Nonetheless, that second was all Fox needed, it had caused her to lose her visual of him and knowing that she would follow him into the same downward loop, he made a quick change of direction in an upward diagonal direction, but still looping around until he managed to get behind her.

Krystal had no idea how it happened but somehow she had let the other fighter get behind her. "Damn, alright, maybe this one has more skill than I thought", she said to aloud to herself. Whoever this guy was he was pulling off some seriously skilled maneuvers.

Mr. Brick smiled and gave a slight chuckle as he observed the dogfight from the terminal on his desk, but he wasn't the only one. Unfortunately for the other students in the class that had been destroyed, they were forced to remain in the pods until the simulation was over. They were however, able to watch any remaining combatants in the simulation and right now they were all on the edge of their seats watching the intense dogfight between Isaac and Krystal.

Now it was Fox's turn to be on the offensive. He lined her up on his crosshairs and fired, only to have her dodge the simple attack. She seemed to be just as good at dodging and reading the enemy as he was, yet he noticed she was having a little trouble. His shots were just barely grazing her ship, which surprised him because normally she could dodge the laser-fire form the most skilled pilots by a mile. Fox's eyes widened when he realized that why she was having trouble - she couldn't read his thoughts. _'Duh, why didn't I realize that sooner?' _he wondered.

'_Darn it! Why can't I read this guy?' _Krystal questioned. She was having a hard enough time dodging the attacks while sifting through the minds of the others in the classroom, trying to find the one who she was fighting. Up until now she didn't need her psychic abilities but now that she did, she was having trouble pinpointing the correct pilot.

'_What the… I checked them all and none of them are even still in the simulation… but that's not possible, then who am I…' _ A chill ran through her body when she remembered the vulpine whose thoughts and emotions she couldn't read. "Isaac," she growled, Krystal hardly knew the strange vulpine that gave her a tour of the school. She tried to ignore him when he burst into the classroom and made a fool of himself, yet there was something about him that made her unable to take her mind off him; he reminded her so much of Fox that it hurt. Suddenly her ship shook as a laser grazed one of her wings, causing her to break from her reverie. She shook her head and regained her thoughts, giving up trying to read his mind and focusing all her attention on the fight.

Krystal weaved her ship gracefully through the air, dodging barrage after barrage of laser-fire, trying her hardest to get back behind Isaac, but it was no use, no matter what she did he was right on her tail. "Alright," she growled, "Time to end this," She slammed the accelerator to full speed and barrel- rolled through the air.

'_What are you up to now Krystal?' _Fox wondered while accelerating to full speed to keep up with her. Suddenly her ship stopped rolling and pulled into an upward loop but stopped half way and continued straight up. Had he been a little further back and not right on her tail he could have shot her down mid loop, but he was too close to properly angle his shots ahead of her ship. Now they were both flying straight up.

Fox burrowed his eyebrows behind his sunglasses, trying to figure out what she was up to. His expression softened and a smile formed upon his face upon figuring out what she was going to do. _'Well Krystal, it's a bit reckless but I guess this has gone on long enough,' _he thought to himself as he fired a few sloppy shots at her.

Krystal easily dodged the shots and wasting no more time she pulled the accelerator all the way back and activated all the air breaks, making her an easy target for a split second but hoping her gamble would pay off. She felt the force of the enemy fighter fly past her, going too fast to slow down. Her risk had worked and the enemy was to close behind her to compensate for her sudden deceleration. Within a split second later she lined her crosshairs up with the rear of the enemy fighter and gave it everything she had.

With his hands now off the controls and resting comfortably behind his head, Fox smiled and closed his eyes. _'Good job Krystal,'_ he thought as he felt his ship rumble as it was pelted with laser fire until it tuned into a beautiful ball of simulated fire and exploded. For a second, Fox had wished the fight was real and that it was all finally over for him. He wanted it all to end right there, glad that it was Krystal giving him what he deserved.

Fox sighed, knowing that it wasn't real. He brought his attention to the screen that appeared before him. In big bold letters it spelled out "Match Victor" and underneath in equally big bold letters was "Krystal" with the number of her kills beside her name which was ten. Underneath, listed in smaller letters were all the other people involved in the simulation and their number of kills. It was organized by most kills to least, so right after Krystal was the name "Isaac" along with the number ten. Had this been a video game they would have tied, but this was a simulation of real combat, and the only winners in real combat were the ones that lived to see another day. The scores of all the other pilots were ones and twos, with a hand full of zeros.

Suddenly the screen went black and the pod canopy slid open. Fox, and everybody else, hopped out of the pods and stretched their backs and legs. Beside Fox stood a beautiful blue vixen with what Fox could only assume was a cocky grin on her face. He smiled inwardly at her victory, a part of him was proud of her like a teacher would be of a pupil. Another part of him was happy that she had put those sexist assholes in their place; she proved she was a better pilot than any of them fair and square... other than with him of course.

"Man that dogfight was crazy," said one of the other students in the class, he was a raccoon, a little shorter than Fox.

"Yeah that was nuts," chimed in another student, this one a coyote. "Which one of you is Isaac?" He shouted.

Fox looked around and slowly raised his hand, "Uh, I am."

"Dude," he shouted, "That fight was sick, those maneuvers were insane. I can't believe you lost to a female though" he taunted and the rest of the class also laughed.

Fox looked at him, then back at Krystal. He saw her grin was replaced with a scowl.

Krystal easily heard the entire thing. They were talking as if she wasn't in the room anymore when she was standing not even five feet away from Isaac. '_Are these people serious?' _ She thought. She had just kicked all of their tails in the simulation, and yet they refuse to believe that she was better than them. Instead they chose to laugh at and taunt Isaac for losing to her, a female, even though he was only one kill out of ten. The fact that the only reason he was being mocked was because he lost to a female pissed her of to no end, but before she could say anything she heard Isaac speak up.

"What?" Fox said and scratched his head in confusion, playing dumb.

"I said I can't believe you lost to a female," the coyote taunted again.

"Uh, alright… but I still don't understand what's so funny?" The vulpine said with perfect fake confusion. "Wait, is there something on face?" he said and rubbed around his puzzle pretending wipe something of his face.

"What? No… are you…look, it's funny because you lost to a girl." The coyote responded with his own confusion at why the vulpine was confused. The rest of the class also had weird looks on their faces while they wondered what the hell was wrong with the vulpine in the sunglasses.

"…wait, that's the funny part?" Fox said as he tilted and scratched his head to give the effect that he was even more confused. "What's so funny about that?" he said giving the illusion that he genuinely didn't understand.

"It's funny because females can't fly for shit" The coyote said, now more irritated that he had to explain to the fox that he was being made fun of.

"They can't?" he questioned, "Why not?"

"Dude, are you seriously asking me this, what are you retarded," The coyote said now anger that the vulpine wasn't getting it.

"I could be," Fox laughed. "But you still haven't answered my question, what's so different about females that make them poor pilots?"

The coyote was now growling in annoyance. "They… they're… they just are, okay,"

"That's not a very good answer. Are you sure _you're_ not retarded?" Fox laughed at the now fuming coyote.

"What did you call me!" he growled back.

"Hey, don't get mad at me because you can't answer my question. I honestly don't understand why your taunting me for losing to a girl… besides, you lost to her too, didn't you?" The vulpine stated.

"What… no I, well… it's because you shot me down. If it wasn't for you I could have taken her out." The coyote responded smugly after calming down."

Another student, a short rabbit, started to laugh, but this time at the coyote instead. "Dude, Francis, are you serious?"

"What?" the coyote questioned.

The rabbit chuckled, "You are full of it," He said and continued. "Right, so your saying that you could have taken her out, when Isaac over there scored ten kills and whose maneuvers were, and I quote "insane" couldn't even land a scratch on her. Besides, how do you know for sure that Isaac shot you down and she didn't?"

"Well I… He let her win!" Frances shouted, saying anything to not be humiliated.

Krystal's ears perked up and Fox froze. "Wh-what? No I didn't," he quickly interjected.

Krystal couldn't understand why someone could be so afraid of humiliation that they would make up lies. She beat Isaac fair and square… didn't she?

"Of course you did!" the coyote yelled "Those shot's you fired at the end were so sloppy, you weren't even trying to hit her."

Krystal was now not so sure of her victory. As annoying as the coyote was, he did have a point, Isaac's shots were very sloppy at the end. Up until then his shots were dead on. _'Did… he let me win?' _she wondered.

Fox had to say something quick to cover his tail. "Alright, first of all, how in the world could I have known who I was fighting, It could have been any of you. Secondly, why would I let someone beat me, that just doesn't make sense. My shots were sloppy because I was tired and she was too good at dodging my attacks to hit. Like the rabbit said, I didn't even do any real damage that whole fight."

Isaac stated very convincing facts but Krystal wasn't so sure, something about him was… just off. She didn't know how but somehow he knew it was her. Somehow he also knew her tactics and maneuvers. But then, if he knew it was her, why would he let her win? What did he have to gain? The blue vixen rubbed her head in confusion, wishing desperately to see into that strange vulpine's mind.

"Face it, Francis. We all lost to her fair square." The rabbit chimed in.

"Yeah, I have no problem losing to her." This time a badger spoke up. "Don't you guys even know who that female is?"

The crowd of students now stared blankly at the badger. "You guys honestly don't know who that is? Are you sure you're all not retarded? Come on, how do you not recognize her, she's the only blue fox out there."

"Will you just tell us!" the coyote shouted.

"That's Krystal from Star Wolf." The badger replied, wondering how in the hell they couldn't recognize the only blue vixen in all of Lylat.

Krystal was rather entertained up until now by the way Isaac handled the taunting coyote. Now however, she was a little uneasy that they knew who she was.

"Oh my god, it is!" One of the other students said. "No wonder we lost."

"Yeah," another student chimed in. "But what's she doing here?"

Before anyone could make speculations Krystal finally decided to speak up. "I'm here to become a flight instructor just like you guys. And before you ask, I left Star Wolf, and am no longer part of any mercenary team."

"Why is that?" The rabbit asked.

"Because I was no longer happy with them, that's why," She answered calmly.

"That makes sense," the rabbit said.

Krystal could read his thoughts and knew that he didn't believe her. The rabbit, along with all the other students in the class were coming up with wild reasons for why she was really not part of Star Wolf. Isaac however, was still as empty and void as ever, giving her chills every time she tried to read him.

"So," They coyote said smoothly. "Does this mean you're no longer seeing Panther Caroso?" he asked.

Krystal sighed "No, I am no longer seeing Panther, and I am _not _interested in a relationship before you ask,"

This news made the class's speculations about why she left Star Wolf even more farfetched form than before.

Fox laughed on the inside, but at the same time felt responsible for everything that happened to her. He was glad she wasn't with Panther, but at the same time felt like a sick bastard for what he did to her. He sighed and looked around the simulator room while the other students were talking when he noticed something, or rather, didn't notice something.

"Um hey… guys?" Fox asked catching their attention. Almost everyone stopped talking and looked at him with the same "What?" expressions on their faces. "Uh, where's the teacher?" he said.

Immediately everyone looked towards the head desk of the simulator room but didn't see a trace of Mr. Brick.

"Hey, there's a note on his desk" someone said.

Fox went over to the desk. He picked it up and read it out loud. "_Class is over, didn't want to interrupt, see you tomorrow, sincerely, Mr. Brick… P.S. Don't be late._"

"Holy, shit we've been talking for almost an hour!" The rabbit yelled. "Damn it, I'm going to be late for my date!" he screamed and ran out the door.

A few students laughed and a few cussed at their situation as they began leaving the classroom and heading their separate ways. Most of them going back to their homes to relax and get ready for what tomorrow would bring.

xxxx

Krystal lay on her bed in her crummy apartment after her long first day of class. Going to bed was one of the only things she looked forward to in her daily routine. Not because of sleep, but because all of her blankets and pillows were previously owned by Fox McCloud; even her pajamas where once his. She would lie in his blankets and pillow and breath in his wonderful sent. When she did it, it was like he never left and was lying right there beside her. She curled her tail around her legs for warmth and let tears rolled down her muzzle as she snuggled into his sheets. "Fox," she murmured.

xxxx

**Again, sorry for the delay, but I'm a lazy prick. That being said, I am still defiantly going to finish this story… but the end is very far away. Also, sorry if you were confused with the simulator part, it's very hard to write out aerial maneuvers. I'm also sorry if you found this chapter incredibly boring. I just wanted to get the first day of class over with. Thanks for reading, please read and review. The reviews really keep me inspired, HOWEVER, I am not going to answer questions or tell you about what's going to happen next. I have this whole story in my head, it just takes time to get it on paper…uh err, text document.**


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